Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
panies. 61 In order to weaken union opposition, Standard Fruit included a
clause in the 1965 labor contract that established an incentive system for
employees based on the total number of bunches shipped from its Hon-
duran division regardless of whether the fruit came from a company-run
farm.ThisapparentlyswayedmanyofStandardFruit'semployees—ama-
jorityof whom did not work in harvesting operations—who came toview
the union's opposition to the IPP as preventing them from earning extra
pay. 62 Afteramodestbeginningin1966,theIndependentPlanterProgram
grew swiftly: in 1971, IPP farms occupied approximately 3,800 hectares. 63
Contracting out banana production enabled the fruit companies to
cut labor costs, but it did not resolve the problems posed by Panama
disease. Running low on both disease-free soils and facing an uncertain
political climate following the 1954 strike, Standard Fruit's management
abandoned efforts to undertake capital-intensive flood fallowing in favor
of renewing the search for a pathogen-resistant banana to replace Gros
Michel. At some point during the early 1940s, Standard imported Bout
Rond plants from Puerto Rico and Giant Cavendish from Santos, Brazil,
alongwiththeIC2,ahybridcreatedbyBritishbreedersattheImperial
College of Tropical Agriculture that resisted both Panama and Sigatoka
pathogens. 64 In 1944, Standard began small commercial shipments of the
IC2hybridvariety.Exportspeakedin1950(lessthan0.5millionbunches)
but the company discontinued IC 2 production four years later due to the
variety's relatively low yields and short-fingered fruit. 65 Standard's first
planting of Giant Cavendish (a modest 40 hectares) took place in 1943. 66
Shortly thereafter, the company began intercropping Bout Rond bananas
among diseased Gros Michel plants so that as the latter went out of pro-
duction,theformerwouldserveasareplacement.GeneralManagerChute
described both Bout Rond and Giant Cavendish as ''fine, large bananas,
resistant to Panama disease.'' 67 However, the fruit bunches did not ripen
in the same manner as Gros Michel fruit. Bout Rond and Giant Caven-
dish required storage temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit
andexposuretoethylenegasinordertoripen''properly.''Chutetherefore
initially discouraged selling Bout Rond and Giant Cavendish bananas to
dealers who would not ripen them ''in the proper manner.''
By 1953, more than 3,200 hectares of Bout Rond were in bearing. 68
Threeyears later, Standard Fruit elected to convert all of its production to
Giant Cavendish because it out-yielded Bout Rond and possessed greater
resistance towind damage (''Giant Cavendish'' was a misnomer; the plant
was shorter than either Gros Michel or Bout Rond). The company sold
its Cavendish fruit under the trade name ''Golden Beauty.'' As had been
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