Is it worth for Chiquita to maintain its sustainability projects? / photo credits: http://www.southernstudies.org/sites/default/files/images/Bananas.jpg
Chiquita, a company that has been in importing and exporting fruits for over a century, has recently advocated for a more sustainable and socially responsible action towards their own ways of doing business. Together with social activist groups, Chiquita agreed to only use sustainable farming techniques and all their products are certified by environmental standards. Also, Chiquita has defended women’s rights and promised that none of their products would come from a farm where sexual harassment has occurred. However, because of all these promises and agreements to become more sustainable and ethically responsible, Chiquita has fallen behind its competitors.
More concerning is the fact that Chiquita was the only company that had voluntarily disclosed that they paid the Colombian paramilitary for protection of their plantations, and as a reward for their honesty they are facing several lawsuits in America and in Colombia. Last year, Chiquita, attempted to please another green group and accepted not to use fuel from Canadian tar sands for its ships and in lorries. For this act of ecological sustainability Chiquita found a group attempting to boycott its products as a response.
Cases like Chiquita’s makes me wonder if trying to please everyone and being ethically responsible is worth it. Wouldn’t Chiquita be much more competitive if they did not choose to change to a more ethically and environmentally responsible company? How can the other less responsible companies be striving in today’s world when we say we are much more ethically conscious? Shouldn’t they be the ones who are suffering from their carelessness with the world and its resources? Why is Chiquita not receiving all the merits it deserves?
All in all, it is reasonable for the head of IUF (International Foodworkers’ Union), Ron Oswald, to complain “It’s not sustainable for any company in a competitive sector to make progress and gain no recognition for it.”