CDC Bananas Rejected Twice Soon After Delmonte Quit

CDC now has every reason to pay more attention to bananas. Barely a month after the corporation (Cameroon Development Corporation) took over technical production of bananas from its partner Delmonte, it lost some 10 tons of the fruit to rejection at the Douala Port.
By Fonjia Regina Leke & Azore Opio
The Green Vision learnt that inside a month CDC lost over 80 pallets of banana equivalent to some 10 tons. 
“By the end of December, Fruitcam now purchasing CDC bananas, rejected over 50 pallets of fruits at the port in Douala because they arrived late. Hardly a week after, about 20 pallets from the Benoe farm were rejected at the port. This never used to happen when Delmonte was in charge,” Yuh Ignatius, a CDC staff representative en route to the corporation’s oldest banana farm, Mafanja I, said.
He said it seems when the bananas are taken to the port, the least complaint is found to reject them. 
While some CDC workers see this as a ploy to frustrate the corporation’s efforts, others believe that just a month after taking over production, CDC is not giving appropriate care to bananas the way Delmonte would, hence leaving the fruits with complaints. 
Delmonte International, a Costa Rica firm, parted ways with CDC on December 31, 2013 after 25 years of partnership.
Delmonte had signed a contract with the government of Cameroon to produce bananas. The terms; Delmonte will provide the capital, technical knowhow, infrastructure and market while CDC will provide the land and cheap labour. In return, CDC gets $1 per box of banana. The contract was supposed to last for 20 years, but after that period, Delmonte renewed the contract six times. 
It is alleged that the decision to cut loose Delmonte came when CDC realised that Delmonte was making a lot of money behind its back in a huge market abroad, while CDC which provided land and labour received a trifling amount.
A worker at the Mafanja I farm, who on condition of anonymity, said “In my opinion, Delmonte is not happy leaving. They reject bananas coming from CDC because they want CDC to feel frustrated and run back to them to come and manage the affairs.” 
The worker, however, blamed the shortsightedness of the CDC management for not having taken appropriate measures to ensure a smooth transition. 
“CDC was aware Delmonte would leave one day. It was their place to look for their market first before pushing Delmonte out. How can you stop someone from producing and you want to sell to this same person? It is but normal that the person would want to pay you in your own coins,” the worker added.
A junior field assistant trainee also told The Green Vision that the decision to end Delmonte’s contract was based on the assumption that having worked with Delmonte for 26 years, CDC must have acquired the appropriate skills to run the banana plantation. 
“But from the look of things CDC does not seem to be handling the transition well. The transition effectively started from December 30 and CDC is already facing many challenges. We have had fruits produced and sent to the port but rejected because they were delayed. When banana is produced, it has just 24 hours to be put into the rifer containers at the port where it will be refrigerated while waiting for transportation to the market. CDC suffered its first blow on December 30 when it produced over five tons of banana and the vessel only came the next day by 3 pm; 73 pallets were lost because the banana got ripe at the port so they were rejected,” said the field assistant trainee. 
When the Green Vision met the manager in charge of the Mafanja I plantation to verify the amount of bananas CDC had lost, he refused to comment. 
The CDC Public Relations Officer at the corporation’s head office in Bota, Limbe, who refused to give his names, said the rejection of their bananas should be a call for concern.
“First, there is no problem between CDC and Delmonte. Delmonte opted out and after 25 years, CDC is well trained and equipped to run its farms. What we are experiencing are difficulties related to a transition period. What happened at the port was purely logistical; another company took the consignments of the bananas,” the PRO said.
The Group Banana Manager based in Tiko also refused to give his names but said as a producer of bananas, he feels pain whenever his crop is rejected for whatever reason. 
“In any case, I am not authorized to talk about banana business. I can’t talk without the authorization of the General Manager, my boss,” the Manager said.
He said their bananas are inspected on the farm, at the port and in the market.
Although the CDC officials downplayed the problem plaguing the banana sector after Delmonte’s departure, a worker, who asked for anonymity, said CDC’s biggest problem is poor management.
“CDC is going to run into more trouble if it does not pull up its socks,” the worker told The Green Vision.
He said what likely caused the rejection of the bananas was over-age because the materials did not arrive in time. And banana’s for the international market mature at 12 weeks.
“After 12 weeks, they are over-age and no one is going to buy them unless it is a special arrangement.
According to the worker, banana is a very fragile produce; a slight error – sunburn, scratches, scars, insects, caterpillars, snails – leads to rejection.
“You don’t need to lack materials at any moment. You need fertilizer, chemicals, bagging packing and materials. If bags are not cycled in time, the bagging is carried forward to the next week when fruits will be over-aged,” the worker said.
He said poor supervision is another bane of the CDC.
Grievances
On the sidelines, the CDC workers expressed their grievances with what they termed new management corrupt practices. 
“After having spent 26 years with us, we expected Delmonte to at least make a gesture to say thank you and for us to bid them farewell. This was supposed to be in the form of some bonuses and benefits,” Yuh told the Green Vision. 
It is rumoured that Delmonte gave the money to CDC but it wants to withhold the “bonuses” and the workers are beginning to agitate because they sense foul play. 
The workers have been decrying poor working conditions on the plantation. 
“This is hell. I get up as early as 3 am to go to the farm and work over 14 hours of hard labour. Sometimes, I come back home as late as 10 pm. What I get at the end of the month is far less than what I put in. In December, I was paid 13.000 frs cfa whereas putting my hours together I was supposed to earn about 60.000 frs cfa. I have three kids, how do I even feed them or send them to school?” said a labourer
Another worker who chose to remain anonymous said the transition has not been easy. 
“It has been very painful because workers now have to stay for longer periods at the farm waiting for the vessel to come for them to load the bananas. Sometimes they have to wait till the next morning. If the vessel does not come, they have to wait because banana is a very fragile crop which must be transported as it is produced if not it gets bad. This is a managerial problem, because when Delmonte was still in control, the vessel which transports bananas to the port always came on time. But this has not been the case with CDC,” the worker said.
He said it is equally traumatizing for workers who produce the crop and it does not get sold. “Right now we are skeptical if we are going to get paid by the end of the month and this would really affect my family,” he lamented. 
The workers equally condemn CDC for not letting them take rejected bananas. 
“When the vehicles bring back rejected bananas, CDC either sells them cheaply to market women or let them rot in the fields. They prohibit us from taking the bananas home to feed our family. This is the most annoying thing. I se this as wickedness,” a labourer said.
He told The Green Vision that he leaves home as early as 3 am and only returns by 9 pm. Being a category 2C worker, he goes home with circa 1.300 frs cfa a day which leaves him with 32.000 frs cfa a month. 
“This is so immeasurable to the hard labour put in. I find it so hard to pay my rents, bills, feed and take care of my family with such a wage. The human being needs rest and that is what we don’t have,” he added. 
The Green Vision also learnt that Delmonte got free vehicles from charities abroad to help alleviate poverty but when these vehicles arrived in Cameroon, Delmonte sold them to CDC at exorbitant rates.