Equifruit, a Canadian-based importer and marketer of fair trade bananas is on a mission to ensure farmers are paid fairly.
“We want to drive home to people that making an ethical choice, making a sustainable choice for bananas doesn’t cost very much money,” said Equifruit President Jennie Coleman. “The average American eats 27 pounds of bananas a year. We estimate that retailers will increase price per pound of bananas by 20 cents, which, if you do the math, is just a shade over $5 a year.”
To underscore the power of just $5 a year, Equifruit engages retailers and consumers with clever marketing campaigns.
“Our marketing is based on starting with something absurd and humorous and always bringing the message back to our famous hashtag: ‘farmers gotta get paid,’” said Coleman. “We have some really creative ways of reaching retailers and convincing them to list Equifruit fair trade bananas, even though it might cost a little bit more to consumers.”
At a recent trade show, Equifruit featured its “Make it Rain” for banana farmers campaign.
“We have this money gun that shoots out $5 U.S. Equi-bucks as an expression that it would cost the average consumer only $5 more per year, and in so doing, you can really make a difference in the life of banana growers,” Coleman said.
“Changing global trade, changing the retail golden rule that you can’t increase the price on bananas is not for the weak of heart. And so the people who are with us, who understand that hashtag farmers gotta get paid, we call them Banana Badasses,” she said.
While $5 more a year for bananas doesn’t sound like much, as Equifruit has found, the long history of low-priced bananas at retail can be challenging to disrupt.
“Basically, it’s really tough to change streams if you’ve had the same communication about low price bananas for 100 years,” she said. “It’s very tough for retailers now to face their consumers and say we had a great run of low price, but now we’re going to raise our prices in order to make banana supply chains more sustainable.
“The ask to consumers through retailers to spend just 20 cents more on bananas still leaves them as the cheapest fruit in your basket, just a little less cheap,” Coleman continued. “Bananas have not grown with inflation the way all other commodities, all other produce items have, and it’s just kind of a reset in order to right the ship.”
Equifruit says fair trade bananas are a purchase consumers can feel good about.
“The beautiful thing about fair trade is that it’s a way for consumers to participate in sustainability at a very accessible and easy way, if you are looking to leave the world a better place than where you found it,” she said.
