Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
figure 5.5. Cortero y juntero harvestingbananasinCaribbean
Guatemala(1925).NoteheightofGrosMichelplants.UnitedFruitCompany
Photograph Collection. Baker Library, Harvard Business School.
on any given corte.
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Through the 1940s, grading was done largely by eye:
supervisors displayed representative bunches to the corteros in order to
give them an idea about what their teams should harvest. This was no
trivial matter since fruit that was either too thin or too far along in the
ripening process would be rejected by fruit inspectors. Corteros also pro-
vided farm managers with crucial information about the volume of fruit
that would be available for future cortes.
HarvestingthelargefruitbunchesproducedbytallGrosMichelplants
required coordination among workers. Using a blade attached to the end
of a lightweight, eight-foot pole, acorteromade a small gash in the plant's
