Company calls on employees to return to work to protect the fruit and ensure its proper harvest, packaging, and export
Chiquita Panama says it has lost 450,000 boxes of bananas destined for export this week due to a week-long strike by farm workers paralysing its operations in Bocas del Toro. The company warned that the ongoing walkout is also causing the deterioration of its plantations.
In an official statement, the company called on all its employees to return to work to protect the fruit and ensure its proper harvest, packaging, and export.
The company noted that “the impact on the plantations due to the suspension of agricultural work is already visible” and that, if the situation continues, “its impact will be irreversible, and we will not have any bananas to export from Panama”.
Bananas are Panama’s number one export, representing 17.6 per cent of total exports in the first months of the year.
Chiquita said it remained committed to Panama, despite the difficulties it has faced in recent years. It pointed out that it has created more than 6,000 jobs in the province and made a significant contribution to the local community.
In the statement, Chiquita said it respects the political decisions of its workers and stressed the need to “protect an activity that has been, for decades, an engine of development for the province of Bocas del Toro and a livelihood for thousands of Panamanian families”.
