On September 24th 2013, Oxfam Germany published its new report “Billige bananen wer Zahlt den preis? (Bananas at low cost, who pays the price?) based on a research conducted by BASIC (available here) as a follow-up of the study made for Fairtrade Foundation last February.

Based on an extensive literature review, international trade statistics and interviews with experts of the banana industry, our research provides evidence that German retailers generate high pressure on suppliers’ prices and contribute to the breach of the legal minimum price established by the Ecuadorian government, with dramatic consequences on small producers and agricultural workers in Ecuador. It also shows that in Colombia, where there is no legal minimum price, this pressure is fueling the deterioration of working conditions.

Following the press conference of Oxfam in Berlin, during which BASIC intervened, the report was taken up by a dozen German media, including the Deutschlandfunk (German public radio), echoing the conclusions of the study on the abuse of power by supermarkets published on the same day by the German competition authority.