The biggest news item I avoid in this blog are banana trade wars. That’s because it would take me thousands and thousands of words to explain why the U.S., Europe, and the big banana companies have been fighting for years over who gets to sell bananas where. There have been resolutions that have led to no resolutions, problems that have led to more problems, and lots of ugly behavior on both sides. Suffice it to say that the whole thing is corrupt, and that none of it really affects whether or not bananas show up on store shelves (though it does affect where those bananas come from, and prices, as you’ll see, below.) The problem is that when you enter the labyrinth, you just can’t find your way back. Sorry.
But sometimes, I just have to say something. Last week, Dole and Del Monte – Dole’s the second biggest banana company in the world, and Del Monte, depending on how you count, is probably third or fourth – were fined a total of $83 million by the European Union for conspiring to fix banana prices in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden. These fines were good. Price-fixing is bad, and I’m always happy – we should all be happy – when banana company skullduggery is exposed.
The interesting thing about all this is who turned the Dole and Del Monte in: it was Chiquita, their rival, and the world’s biggest banana company.
This time, I won’t comment, other than to refer you to the source of the picture, above.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
