900,000 Boxes of Bananas Dumped as Strike Paralyses Panama’s Top Export

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Source: Public Domain - Chiquita Bananas

Chiquita Panama, the multinational at the centre of the chaos, is now counting its losses in the tens of millions and it’s not just a corporate problem. Thousands of Panamanian farmers and harvesters are staring down the barrel of devastation, as their livelihoods are quite literally fermenting in the fields.

Let’s be clear: this should never happen in 2025. Not in an age where we’ve got AI-driven supply, logistics, blockchain traceability, and smart cold chain tech. Yet here we are, once again bearing witness to the bizarre fragility of our global food system, where fruit is sacrificed not to weather, war, or disease, but bureaucracy and bad management.

Chiquita is now begging workers to return, warning that not only is the current crop unsalvageable, but future harvests are also compromised due to delayed pruning and disrupted plant health. “Each day without harvest represents an irrecoverable loss,” the company says, with grim finality.

Panama's President José Raúl Mulino stepped in last week with a crisis meeting scheduled with Chiquita brass. His public statement was tinged with frustration: “There is no reason for a sector of banana farms in Bocas del Toro to be paralyzed... This is a tremendous blow.”

He’s not wrong. Bananas make up a juicy 17.6% of Panama’s total exports. And the message being sent to global markets is simple: instability, both political and procedural, is still a major threat to primary producers, no matter how many export contracts they’ve signed or ESG brochures they’ve printed.

Meanwhile, the fruit keeps rotting.

The strike, led by the Union of Banana Workers, has now stretched beyond 11 days. Workers are demanding protections in light of the repeal of Law 462—legislation tied to Panama’s Social Security Fund. Chiquita has publicly stated it respects the workers’ right to protest, but has stressed the long-term implications of the standstill.

Source: Food © David Herraez | Dreamstime.com - Banana Plantation Worker

The question is asked; why is there no contingency plan? Why are global fruit brands, flush with AI dashboards and sustainability pledges, still watching multimillion-dollar perishables vanish into the compost pile when things go sideways?

Where are the rapid-response logistics? The regional redistribution channels? The food rescue ops? We have the tech but not the will.

It’s not just a Chiquita problem, it’s a symptom of a global supply chain remaining disturbingly analogue when pressure mounts.

And if the cherries of Chile and the bananas of Bocas del Toro are anything to go by, the next fruit in line is already ripening toward disaster.

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