When Christopher Columbus first set eyes on Bocas del Toro on Oct. 6, 1502, he was struck by the world’s pure magnificence. The archipelago, situated on present-day Panama’s northwestern Caribbean coast, was a distant and untamed frontier whose swampy terrain, relentless tropical illnesses, and absence of main gold deposits had—till then—saved colonial powers at bay.
Within the centuries that adopted, the area turned a haven for pirates, international settlers, rich landowners, and their enslaved laborers.
Then got here the bananas.
First domesticated in New Guinea some 7,000 years in the past, by the late 1800s, the Gros Michel selection had change into a success in america—low-cost, obtainable year-round, and even really helpful by docs. As demand skyrocketed, U.S. fruit firms started securing huge tracts of land in Central America. And Bocas, with its fertile soils and entry to world transport routes, was a perfect location.
Within the Eighteen Nineties, American entrepreneurs started planting bananas in Bocas del Toro, and in 1899, their farms had been acquired by the newly shaped United Fruit Firm (UFC), forming the world’s largest banana enterprise. Although UFC—later generally known as the United Manufacturers Firm and Chiquita Manufacturers—was not the primary to introduce bananas to the Americas, it was among the many first to prepare large-scale, commercially pushed cultivation to fulfill the rising U.S. demand.
And because the banana business grew, so too did Panama. UFC’s early days coincided with Panama’s nascency as an unbiased nation, and the event of the corporate was liable for an excessive amount of the event of the area. Granted important land concessions, UFC and its subsidiaries acted as one thing of a parallel authorities in Panama’s northwestern coastal lowlands, constructing and administering sprawling plantations to develop bananas; roads, railways, ports, and canals to move them; and full cities—full with faculties, hospitals, housing, and infrastructure—to accommodate its workforce.
This immense affect, nevertheless, got here at nice price. As a result of the corporate, somewhat than the state, managed a lot of Bocas del Toro’s early infrastructure, many staff had been totally depending on the corporate for his or her livelihoods—for example, they had been typically paid in tokens that would solely be used at company-owned shops, as a substitute of money. Even into the Seventies, Bocas del Toro’s faculties had been staffed and paid for by the corporate, and the area remained accessible solely by sea and air, with out public programs linking the area to the remainder of Panama.
In fact, with the banana business additionally got here labor struggles, racial and ethnic segregation, political corruption, and environmental hazards—to not point out the notorious incidents of violence and political interference elsewhere in Latin America. However bananas nonetheless turned the spine of Panama’s financial system, each a significant export and supply of employment.
At present, Panama is now not a prime banana exporter. (In keeping with the United Nations, the highest exporting nations in 2024 had been Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Guatemala.) However there may be maybe no nation that has been extra profoundly formed—politically, economically, and geographically—by the banana business. Which is why latest occasions have come as such a shock.
- A lady attends a protest in Bocas del Toro, Panama, on Might 25, after Chiquita Panama laid off staff. Enea Lebrun/Reuters
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Staff stand with their arms crossed in entrance of a mural displaying folks in hats with their fists raised. - Chiquita staff wait exterior the Nationwide Meeting for union leaders to emerge with the outcomes of their conferences with lawmakers in Panama Metropolis on June 10. Martin Bernetti/AFP through Getty Photos
In latest months, a long-simmering disaster got here immediately to a boil in Bocas del Toro.
After Panama’s Nationwide Meeting handed a controversial social safety reform in March, staff nationwide started to strike, together with lecturers, building staff, and docs.
On April 28, they had been joined by members of Sitraibana, a strong banana employee’s union, who walked off the job at a Chiquita Manufacturers plantation in Bocas. Union leaders asserted that the laws would undermine current advantages particularly negotiated for banana staff in 2017. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino condemned the banana staff’ strike, and a labor court docket declared it unlawful, however staff held the road.
Inside days, the protests unfold, and Panama was engulfed in one in all its most risky social uprisings in latest reminiscence. In Bocas del Toro, protesters blocked off roads, stopping gasoline, meals, and different shipments from coming in or out. The banana business floor to a halt.
By late Might, after reporting $75 million in losses as a consequence of stalled operations and the destruction of crops, Chiquita shut down its operations in Panama and initially laid off 5,000 staff, citing “unjustified abandonment of labor.” Chiquita mentioned it had repeatedly known as for staff to return, however “irreversible” harm had already been carried out. Mulino defended the mass layoffs, saying the corporate was appearing inside its rights underneath the labor court docket’s ruling.
The influence in Bocas was instant. “Virtually your complete financial system of the province is determined by banana cultivation, and Chiquita has been the one main employer for years,” Aris Pimentel, president of the Bocas del Toro Chamber of Commerce, mentioned on the time. Unemployment surged in a province the place simply 36 p.c of residents have completed secondary college and almost 75 p.c are Indigenous, two deep-rooted limitations to employment in different sectors.
On June 11, underneath mounting strain, the federal government struck a take care of Sitraibana: The blockades can be lifted in trade for drafting a particular pension regime. Lawmakers quickly fast-tracked and handed Regulation 471, granting banana staff higher advantages and protections. The banana staff’ union strike ended, however protests continued, and confrontations surged throughout the province—signaling that public anger had outgrown the unique labor dispute.
On June 14, the federal government shifted its method from dialogue to power, launching Operation Omega—a police and riot squad effort aimed toward clearing highway blockades and suppressing protests in Bocas del Toro. Authorities deployed troops, suspended sure constitutional rights, and imposed a partial communications blackout. Greater than 200 folks had been arrested, in response to one estimate from La Prensa, a serious Panamanian newspaper; amongst these detained was the pinnacle of Sitraibana, Francisco Smith.
4 months after the strike started, sporadic unrest continues in Bocas and Panama at giant.
However on Aug. 29, Panama signed a memorandum of understanding with Chiquita to restart banana operations in Bocas del Toro, ending the extended state of uncertainty. Beneath the deal, Chiquita will make investments an estimated $30 million to revive manufacturing on 5,000 hectares of plantations, creating 3,000 jobs within the preliminary section and one other 2,000 within the second stage. Operations are scheduled be absolutely underway by February 2026.
It’s doubtless a reduction to the Mulino administration, which faces strain from the general public amid rising unemployment and native unrest, and from the non-public sector, which desires to restore investor confidence and defend Panama’s financial picture. It is usually doubtless a reduction for these whose incomes are depending on the banana business, significantly in Bocas, the place excessive poverty is pervasive and employment alternatives are concentrated in a single sector.
However for some, the latest unrest is the seen expression of the delicate labor and environmental ecosystem that has underwritten the banana business for greater than a century. When the banana business resumes in full, it should reckon with looming issues that, with out reform, might threaten its future viability.
A fruit picker carries a bunch of bananas on his shoulder in Panama on Oct. 10, 2002. Alberto Lowe/Reuters
From its earliest days, the banana business has had a fraught relationship with labor. Situations have improved over time, however at this time, the worldwide banana business nonetheless closely is determined by an often-exploited workforce. Many seasonal and migrant staff—significantly from Indigenous communities—face predatory recruitment practices, wage theft, and substandard dwelling circumstances. Staff additionally endure more and more hazardous circumstances—scorching warmth, flash floods, and aggressive pest outbreaks—on plantations the place wages lag behind rising productiveness.
Labor dangers are exacerbated by publicity to pesticides, each historic and present. A long time after the widespread use of the nematicide DBCP—which allegedly prompted sterility and reproductive hurt for greater than 1,000 Panamanian banana staff—residents and staff in plantation areas in neighboring nations proceed to face elevated dangers of cancers, continual kidney illness, infertility, and neurodevelopmental problems. Modern pesticide use, together with fungicides and pesticides utilized all year long, additional compounds these dangers throughout Central American banana-producing nations.
In the meantime, environmental and local weather points are taking a big toll in lots of producing areas worldwide. Past chemical runoff and deforestation, the banana business’s in depth use of inorganic fertilizers and poor administration of plant waste contributes considerably to regional greenhouse fuel emissions. Enlargement into beforehand uncultivated lands—typically in response to declining yields—exacerbates biodiversity loss and carbon emissions, threatening fragile ecosystems in mountain foothills and coastal zones.
Local weather change is already negatively affecting banana manufacturing throughout Latin America, creating decrease yields, tighter provides, and shrinking market volumes. A 2025 examine warns that as much as 60 p.c of Latin America’s prime banana-growing areas—residence to 80 p.c of worldwide exports—could possibly be unsuitable as quickly as 2061, with few choices for relocation given the actual rising circumstances wanted for the preeminent Cavendish selection.
Plus, the area’s warming, wetter circumstances are fueling the unfold of devastating plant illnesses, together with the fungal pathogen Tropical Race 4 and Black Sigatoka illness, which has been discovered on plantations in Bocas.
Addressing these issues would require greater than remoted fixes. Many Panamanians, like José Pérez Barboni, a member of the Nationwide Meeting, see the most recent turmoil as a possibility for a broader change in how staff are handled and the way the land is stewarded. “I see this as an opportunity to renegotiate the phrases—inserting staff on the middle of the dialog—whereas additionally creating extra jobs, producing earnings, and maybe even diversifying manufacturing,” he informed International Coverage.
As a part of the new settlement, the president of Chiquita, Carlos López Flores, mentioned that the corporate will restart in Panama “underneath a brand new working mannequin that’s extra sustainable, trendy, and environment friendly, producing first rate jobs and contributing to the nation’s financial and social growth.” It’s not but clear what that may entail, however it appears to point a recognition that the business’s present mannequin shouldn’t be sustainable indefinitely.
Individuals journey by bicycle or on foot as a consequence of highway closures by strikers in Bocas del Toro on Might 25, after mass layoffs by Chiquita Panama. Enea Lebrun/Reuters
Investments in local weather adaptation measures, equivalent to elevated irrigation, enhanced pest and illness administration, and extra resilient planting supplies, are costly. Traditionally, firms have handled crises by pushing prices downward onto plantation staff. However smaller operations in Panama have discovered different methods of doing enterprise.
The Chiriquí province, which borders Bocas del Toro, is residence to native cooperatives experimenting with sustainable and equitable banana manufacturing. Demetrio Javier Díaz, the president of the chamber of commerce, business, agriculture, and tourism within the Chiriquí city of Boquete, urged that these cooperatives might supply a mannequin for a approach ahead, both as a parallel or long-term different to the present system.
Not like the multinational system, the place earnings and decision-making are concentrated overseas, cooperatives maintain wealth and company inside the communities that really domesticate the fruit. This permits staff to share possession, have a direct voice in how farms are managed, and profit extra pretty from the worth of their labor.
A cooperative mannequin might additionally encourage diversification, combining banana cultivation with alternate crops or with small-scale tourism initiatives, decreasing the dependency of areas equivalent to Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí on a single, risky export. Joseph Archbold, a Bocas-raised chef and founding father of Bocas Hospitality Group, informed International Coverage that he sees nice potential in cocoa, including, “We don’t must repeat the historical past of exporting uncooked supplies with out added worth. Proper right here, we will remodel that cocoa into … merchandise that inform our story and generate native employment.”
Furthermore, by emphasizing coaching and training, cooperatives will help staff construct the talents wanted to adapt to new agricultural practices and even shift into different sectors when local weather or market pressures make banana farming unsure. On this sense, a cooperative isn’t just a enterprise different—it’s a pathway towards neighborhood resilience, environmental stewardship, and long-term prosperity in areas traditionally weak to the exit of huge firms.
A dockworker walks previous containers with the Chiquita emblem on them in Almirante, Panama, on Oct. 10, 2002. Alberto Lowe/Reuters
Archbold grew up across the banana business, the place his father spent his total profession. He remembers “watching ships loaded with bananas go away the port, listening to tales about how that giant equipment labored.” However he, like others, thinks the present monocultural mannequin is now not sustainable, for a variety of environmental, financial, and social causes.
Whether or not as a result of building of the Panama Canal, the presence of U.S. army forces, the dominance of multinational banana firms, or the enlargement of international mining pursuits, Panama’s historical past has typically been outlined by struggles for sovereignty in opposition to exterior powers. What comes subsequent is probably one other chapter in that historical past.
As Archbold places it, “Bananas are a part of our reminiscence, however I imagine the longer term lies in daring to think about one thing totally different—extra various, extra sustainable, and above all, extra ours.”
