In December Chiquita Panama will Resume Banana Exports

The multinational Chiquita will resume banana exports in December of this year as part of its operational reactivation process for its production in the province of Bocas del Toro, Panama, which closed months ago due to a union dispute, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici) announced this Friday.  The announcement was made during a tour of its plantations conducted by national authorities and led by the Ministry of Commerce, as part of an exchange with Bocas del Toro producers also related to a possible commercial rapprochement with Mercosur, according to a Mici statement. 

“The return of Chiquita marks a fundamental step in recovering an emblematic export and generating new opportunities for the province,” stated the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Julio Moltó, after visiting the plant with Wagner Beig, the administrative manager of Chiquita Corporations, who reiterated that the company plans an initial investment of $30 million and the hiring of 3,000 workers in this first stage, according to the official statement.  The Chiquita executive also explained that the second phase contemplates the creation of 2,000 additional jobs once export operations fully resume, while Moltó noted that this process is the result of coordinated efforts by the National Government, in conjunction with the Ministries of Labor and Agricultural Development. 

Chiquita Panama operated thousands of hectares in the western province of Bocas del Toro through a concession, but closed the business after the company’s union, Sitraibana, initiated a strike in April that lasted about two months in protest of a social security reform already in effect.  The transnational company laid off approximately 6,500 workers and reported losses of approximately $75 million due to the union strike, which was declared illegal by a labor court.  Chiquita is returning and will “modernize production under a model that is within Panamanian law called sharecropping, which allows the company to cede, without transferring (the land) to farmers to produce” the fruit, the Minister of Commerce explained on September 11. 

The transnational company is committed “to buying the fruit, regulating its production, and supporting” the farmers, “which will generate significantly more employment in the area, all under Chiquita’s standards,” the minister added during a speech at Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s weekly press conference.  Moltó recalled the terms of the agreement for the reactivation of banana production reached with Chiquita on August 29 in Brazil during a meeting between Mulino and the top executives of the Brazilian-owned transnational corporation. 

The Memorandum of Understanding between the government and Chiquita was signed in Brasilia during an official visit by President Mulino to Brazil, and “establishes a framework of cooperation for the reorganization of the Panamanian banana sector,” according to a statement from the Panamanian Presidency.  It is estimated that “Chiquita will invest $30 million to reactivate production on 5,000 hectares of banana land, and subsequent exports” under the new operating model, according to the report.  Bananas remained Panama’s main export product during the first quarter of this year, representing 17.5% of foreign sales, which in that period reached $324.4 million, the highest value in fifteen years, according to official statistics.