Thank you very much for allowing us to provide our answer and point of view.

As with last time when we were asked to comment, it is disappointing when we learn about issues elsewhere the industry where others have not acted as we strive to do.

We have long term relationships with growers who are committed to the same path to sustainability as we are. Whilst this report states that it does not believe the conditions on farms supplying Chiquita to be different to those few visited in their investigation, they are. 

Please consider that Chiquita sources bananas from 12 different countries around the world, on which Ecuador is a very small percentage of our supply base. There, we source from a small number of growers that we have worked with for a number of years. There is a wide variation in the size and standards in banana production in Ecuador and the issues found are not representative of the high standards our partner growers uphold.