The Living Wage Summit held in Amsterdam brings together leaders, businesspeople, and other influential figures in the field of sustainability. There, we shared our efforts to contribute to the development of our communities and the sustainability of Colombia’s banana sector.
As a company, we are strongly committed to implementing responsible and sustainable business practices. One such initiative is the provision of living wages, where we have made significant progress and achieved meaningful results in improving the quality of life for banana producers.
Living Wage Summit 2024
We were recently invited to participate in the 2024 Living Wage & Living Income Summit in Amsterdam, an event that gathered leaders and experts on the topic. Our Director of Sustainability and of Uniban Foundation, Carolina Jaramillo, attended and advocated for the implementation of living wages and incomes in global value chains.
The Living Wage Summit was organised by IDH (Sustainable Trade Initiative), GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), and the United Nations Global Compact.
IDH promotes sustainable trade in global production chains by collaborating with businesses, financiers, governments, and civil society. GIZ, a German development agency, supports development through its services, while the UN Global Compact seeks to establish universal sustainability principles through business leadership. This event underscored our commitment to the sustainability of the sector.
Our dedicated support for the banana-growing communities and workers in the regions impacted by our operations, and the collaboration we have built with AUGURA (Colombian Banana Growers Association) and Sitrainagro (Banana Workers Union), has enabled us to significantly and progressively increase the remuneration of those working on the various farms over the years.
This forms part of our sustainability strategy, which promotes initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and inequality in the banana sector. Currently, the wages received by these workers are the highest in Colombia compared to other agricultural activities, motivating us to continue strengthening a sector that is becoming increasingly competitive, with a highly skilled workforce producing high-quality export fruit.
Currently, banana workers on farms exporting through our company are fully compliant with all living wage requirements, as per the Anker methodology. In 2023, the living wage reference value for Colombia’s Caribbean coast, which includes Urabá and Magdalena, was approximately 480 euros per month, a figure 82% higher than the legal minimum wage.
It is important to highlight that, for over 30 years, our company has been developing alliances and collective agreements with banana unions to permanently improve the quality of life of those who earn their livelihood from banana farming. The most recent agreement, valid until 2027, resulted in a 14% wage increase.
In the case of the Magdalena region, thanks to ongoing cooperation with ASBAMA (Banana Producers Association of Magdalena and La Guajira), we have significantly reduced the living wage gap for sector workers, lowering it to 9.1% compared to 27.7% in 2022. This progress has been made possible by the foresight of European partners, who, by the end of 2023, provided food vouchers worth 450,000 pesos to sector workers.
These advancements are undoubtedly a reflection of our company’s efforts and commitment to exporting the very best from our land, benefiting the people and families who make this commercial activity possible.
