Chiquita hires 1,600 workers as it resumes operations in Panama

Chiquita has hired 1,600 workers as it resumes its operations in Panama, more than half of the 3,000 required in the first stage of the process, according to the head of the country’s Ministry of Labour and Workforce Development, Jackeline Muñoz.

“At this time, there are 1,655 contracts registered, of which 600 are already permanent in this first stage, which is solely for cleaning and maintenance of the plants,” she told local media.

The multinational shut down its operation and laid off its 6,500 workers following a dispute between the government and local unions earlier this year. Banana exports are expected to resume between December and January. It is estimated that Chiquita will invest US$30mn to reactivate production on 5,000ha of land under a new sharecropping operating model.

Julio Moltó, Colombia’s minister of commerce, said the reactivation process has two stages: a cleaning and maintenance phase for the plants, which requires approximately 3,000 workers, and a second phase that includes 2,000 additional jobs for maintenance, logistics, and fruit production.

Chiquita Panama operated thousands of hectares in the western province of Bocas del Toro through a concession, but closed after the Sitraibana union launched a strike last April that lasted approximately two months in protest of a social security reform already in effect.

Under the sharecropping model, the company leases, without transferring, the land to farmers to produce the fruit, which Chiquita commits to buy, regulating its production, and supporting farmers under its established standards.