“We are an organization of Ecuadorian small banana producers, dedicated to satisfy the demand of our customers with high quality standards, supported by the Fair Trade system, aiming to improve the conditions of our members and to improve our environment in social, environmental and labor terms.”

ASOGUABO became a Fairtrade certified cooperative in 1998. The 14 founding members began exporting their first container to Switzerland that same year.

They are now 125 coop members, covering over 800 Ha in 3 provinces: El Oro, Azuay and Guayas.

With a capacity to export 20 containers worth of fruit (22 000 boxes) every week. Their main import customers of are Agrofair in Europe, Equal Exchange in the USA, All Good in New Zealand and Equifruit and Discovery Organics in Canada.

ASOGUABO is also known as Asociacion de pequenos productores bananeros “El Guabo” (APPBG)

Fairtrade premium use

ASOGUABO manages the Fairtrade premium through the foundation PROMESA. For every box of bananas they sell, an additioanl 1US$ is paid as a FT premium

Below are the areas in which the coop members decided to use the FT premium for.

• Better Farming practices for quality and productivity improvements
• The organic certified inputs provided by the coop allow its members to improve quality, increase their yield and consequently the return they get for their fruit. The extra revenue generated allows Segundo’s 4 children (16, 13, 11, 4) to keep attending school.  As for Norma (69 years old), she can now afford to hire 3 farm workers to harvest the 4000kg worth of fruits each week.

Coop capacity building

• New coop building with new offices and space to host the general assembly
• Larger dock to palletize and load ocean containers

Health program

• Medical centre available for coop members, farm workers, the coop admin staff and the surrounding farming communities
  

Education programs

• Delivery of school bags and stationary to the schools attended by the coop member children and grand-children
• Technical workshops offered to coop members, farm workers and the coop admin staff