Colombian banana farm workers in
the country’s key growing region went on strike over pay and
benefits on Friday, threatening hundreds of thousands of boxes
exported a day, union leaders and producers said.
Around 17,000 banana plantation workers joined the strike
in the world’s No. 3 exporter of the fruit and the protest has
paralyzed around 234,000 18-kg boxes a day of exports, said
Guillermo Rivera, president of the Sintrainagro farm union.
Colombia’s Uraba region, the country’s banana-growing
heartland, usually ships approximately 350,000 boxes of bananas
a day mainly to the clients in the United States and Europe,
according to producers.
“The situation is worrying for producers and commercial
companies as it affects exports to overseas markets and means
contracts go unfulfilled,” a commission representing banana
growers said in a statement. (Reuters)
