The Working Group 02 deals with Distribution of Value. This group seeks to work towards a fair distribution of value along the whole banana chain.

The core group of WG02 met in Paris in June 2010 and agreed to propose a set of specific objectives to a full Working Group meeting. The extended group met in November 2010 in Machala, Ecuador (find here the minutes of that meeting) where the following objectives for this WG were further developed: 

• to identify the key actors at all stages of the supply chain;
• to agree a typology of the different supply chains in the global industry;
• to prioritise what information we need to gather in order to work towards fair distribution of value (eg. labour costs, FOB, CIF and retail prices);
• to map the distribution of value in key supply chains (a representative selection of origins and markets);
• to evaluate prices and costs along the chain;
• to agree a practical methodology for approximating "living" or "decent" wages at plantation/farm level;
• to pilot this methodology in at least two countries;
• to explore the feasibility of various approaches to the redistribution of value in the chain;
• to exchange relevant information with other WGs of the WBF and externally.

In order to make concrete progress on the above objectives, the core group also agreed to commission a base study into the methodologies available for implementing living wages in Latin American banana production.

This study, co-funded by corporate and civil society members of the core group, was made available to the participants during the meeting in Ecuador and it is available here.

Every stakeholder of the banana industry can speak in our Forum! If you are interested to join this group, please send us a motivated email to: [email protected] and we will immediately forward your communication to the coordinators of this WG.

These are the coordinators of the WG02:

• Gilbert Bermúdez Umaña (COLSIBA)
• Xavier Roussel (DOLE)
• José Paredes & Ricardo Guimaraes (Fairtrade International)
• Helge Fischer (BANAFAIR)
• Jhon Jairo Gallego & Marco Tulio Calvo (AUGURA)
• Edgar Monge & Peter Stedman (TESCO)
• Denis Loeillet & Carolina Dawson (CIRAD)
• Jesper Nielsen (3F)
• Alistair Smith (BANANA LINK/EUROBAN)
• Pedro Vásquez (BANAVID)