2.2 million kilos of Canary bananas dumped to lift prices

By Marlis Zoschke

2.2 million kilograms of bananas are simply thrown away in the Canary Islands. It is a disgrace, and the EU should comment on this. Whilst people are going hungry in many countries around the world, we cannot stand by and watch as fresh food is destroyed.

However, the locals have never been fussy about throwing away leftovers. I’ve always found that strange. We were used to clearing our plates, after all. Perhaps things were – and still are – different in Spain.

Anyone who had finished eating had their plate refilled straight away. We were told: «If you’ve had enough, just leave it.» And then everything was thrown away. This was particularly extreme at weddings. There were hardly any ashtrays. Cigarettes were stubbed out on the plate amongst the leftovers.

The Canary Islands banana developed over time

When the farmers in the Canary Islands were finally able to harvest bananas, they were proud of their achievement. However, the fruit from other countries looked much better. In the Canary Islands, the bananas were rather small and crooked, but the flavour was excellent. However, no bananas were exported; they remained in the country.

When the EU came along, the Canary Islands naturally wanted to export as well. So the fruit became bigger and better-looking, enabling them to compete with other exporting countries, such as Costa Rica and South America.

Growing bananas is such hard work

It’s incomprehensible that a whole season’s work should simply be destroyed like that. Can the farmers afford that? Or do the fincas now belong to investors as well, so that there’s enough money to fall back on?

It’s not at all easy to cut the fruit from the plant. I tried it once and was genuinely afraid that instead of cutting the bananas from the tree, I’d end up cutting off a piece of the worker’s body. The sickle is very sharp, and if you slip…

Fortunately, nothing happened. But unless you’ve seen the plantations for yourself, it’s hard to imagine just how much effort goes into planting a banana clump. Not to mention the amount of water and labour required to look after the plants. Until the sickle comes along and the whole process starts all over again.