Equifruit banana producers carrying freshly cut bananas at Agriflores, one of Equifruit’s partner farms in Colombia.

For many Canadians, bananas symbolize stability – a grocery staple that’s reliably cheap and always within reach. Retailers have built on that expectation, keeping prices low and predictable to reinforce a sense of abundance.

Yet, behind that reliability lies a fragile global supply chain buckling under a combination of climate stress, shipping costs and crop disease.

To Montreal-based Equifruit, a 22-person Fairtrade importer that pays growers and workers a premium, that fragility isn’t abstract; it’s existential. Every shipment must clear rising freight rates, port delays and inspection risks.

More recently, volatility came from new U.S. tariffs on Latin American produ

See Full Page