Latest news with #banana
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Chiquita Panama to lay off remaining workers after management leaves country
PANAMA CITY, June 2 (Reuters) - Chiquita Panama's administrative staff have left the country and the firm will seek authorization from the government to sack its remaining personnel in Panama, the nation's labor minister said on Monday. The news comes after the company fired some 5,000 workers of a total of 6,500 employees nationwide last month in response to a strike at its banana farms.
The Sun
5 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Cheap 16p hack helps to repel ants from your garden this summer – but be careful to avoid an easy mistake
A SIMPLE step can help protect your plants from an ant infestation this summer. And you won't have to worry about your flowerbeds because this hack is all-natural and budget-friendly. Adding this affordable item to your garden can help to repel unwanted pests all summer long. The scent of bananas is said to work as a natural repellant for insects such as aphids. According to the experts at The Cool Down, placing banana peels in the soil around your plants can work as a barrier for ants. They recommend simply covering your peels with a thin layer of soil for this hack. Alternatively, you can cut the peel into small pieces and evenly distribute them throughout your garden. And since you can pick up bananas for just 16p a-piece from Sainsbury's, this step won't break your budget. There are important steps to remember when carrying out this unique hack. When burying banana peels, make sure to fully cover them in soil so as not to attract animals to your garden. You should also make sure not to leave the peels exposed as it can attract flies to your garden. As well as burying the peels, you can also use them to create a banana water spray. Top Hacks to Keep Foxes Out of Your Garden First, place a banana peel in five cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture has cooled down, add it to a spray bottle and spritz the mixture directly on the leaves and stems of your plants. Severe infestations can cause plant leaves to turn yellow and die as aphids transmit viruses from plant to plant. You can also use soap and tights to repel flies from your home this summer. Tips for keeping pests from your garden Plant companion plants such as peppermint to repel rats. Place Garden Netting Pest Barrier, over your flowerbeds. Fill open-top containers with beer and place in soil to repel slugs. Spray plants with Neem Oil, to repel ants, flies, and spiders. Dust your flowerbeds with Diatomaceous Earth. Mix 1 tablespoon dish soap, 10 drops peppermint oil, and 4 cups water and spray on flowerbeds. Place eggshells around your plants to protect from slugs and snails. You can also use a £1.40 household item to deter ants from entering your home. A 49p hack helps to keep wasps from your garden, but you'll want to act soon. Another trick prevents squirrels from digging up your garden and all you need is a kitchen staple. And common storage mistakes may be attracting rodents to your garden shed. A £7 Waitrose buy helps to repel insects from your garden while keeping you cool at the same time. 2
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chiquita Panama to fire banana workers after strike
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Chiquita Panama said on Thursday it will fire daily workers in the western province of Bocas del Toro after what it called an "unjustified abandonment of work" at its banana farms that began late April. "The company has proceeded with the termination of all our daily workers," it said in a statement, adding that it estimated losses from 24 days of strike at least $75 million. The layoff should amount to some 5,000 workers of a total of 6,500 employed nationwide, a source close to the company told Reuters. Thousands of banana strike as Panamanians across the country have protested against several issues including reforms to social securities which they say will affect their future pensions. Chiquita Panama said workers affected by the layoffs must report to its offices the following day to collect their severance payments. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Banana Is Summer's Freshest Fragrance
Sophisticated Banana Scents Banana typically brings to mind the cloying scent of certain sunscreens or sugary taffy, but now a group of brands are offering more elevated takes on the fruit. The Barcelona-based perfume maker 27 87, which specializes in unconventional fragrances, recently launched its newest scent, Hakuna Matata, which pairs green banana peel and ripe banana with jasmine, orange blossom and a hint of honey. 'We typically connect to the very fruity part of the banana scent,' says Romy Kowalewski, the brand's creative director and founder. 'It actually has another very sophisticated aspect — creamy with a subtle white floral note — that I wanted to highlight.' The Korean fragrance company Borntostandout takes a different approach to banana with its Nanatopia bottle, which leans into the richness of the fruit by evoking fresh-from-the-oven, caramelized banana bread with notes of rum, cinnamon and tonka bean. For those looking to add the scent to their shower routine, the New York-based skin care brand Soft Services' exfoliating Green Banana Buffing Bar has a freshness reminiscent of the fruit in its leafy, unripe form. And for added visual intrigue, consider the Bananas Candle from Wary Meyers, hand-poured in Cumberland, Maine, and complete with a blue-and-yellow graphic label — a cheeky nod to Chiquita bananas. A Stylish Guesthouse on the Shores of Lake Michigan In 2010, after working as a visual director for Barneys Chicago, Ariane Prewitt opened her own shop, AP, which became two shops that sit side by side in Lakeside, Mich. One focuses on fashion and offers handicraft-focused lines such as Nanna Pause and Dušan, while the other — set in a 19th-century house with gingerbread trim — is more a gallery for art objects and home goods. Lakeside is one of the idyllic towns scattered along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. Prewitt's customers come from all over, and they'll sometimes ask to stay in the apartment tucked behind the gallery. That's reserved for employees or designers passing through for trunk shows, but now, with the opening of Shamrock House — a 1930s-era clapboard cottage close to the store and even closer to the water — Prewitt has a real rental to recommend. She first noticed the cottage while scootering to work in 2020, and renovating it became a pandemic project for her and her husband, the artist and musician Archer Prewitt. The couple raised the ceilings, added skylights and decorated with an emphasis, says Ariane, on 'small luxuries,' including an unlacquered brass deVol faucet in the kitchen, hand-drawn Lake August floral wallpaper in one of the two bedrooms and a curvilinear wood sculpture by Rick Yoshimoto in the living room. The same held true for the property's outdoor space, where guests will find a cedar-clad hot tub and a boxy picnic table. They'll also want to venture farther out: to the gas station turned wine bar Out There, to the antiques shops Alchemy and Trilogy, to Granor Farm and Farmette for fresh produce and to Cherry Beach for a swim in the oceanesque lake. From $395 a night, Paul Thek's Sketches and Paintings, on View in London The Brooklyn-born artist Paul Thek gained recognition in New York's 1960s art scene with his disturbingly realistic wax sculptures of raw meat housed in plexiglass cases and ephemeral installations of newspapers, candles, flowers and eggs that explored themes of mortality and spirituality. He was 54 when he died, in 1988, of complications related to AIDS. This month, a new show of Thek's paintings, including works on paper and a previously unseen notebook of sketches and writings, opens at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, co-curated by the artist and lecturer Kenny Schachter and the fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, who recently displayed Thek's sculptures in his spring 2025 men's wear runway show for Loewe. This is the first British exhibition dedicated to Thek's painting practice, and it showcases a quieter, more delicate side of the artist. His landscape paintings of Mediterranean coastlines and New York cityscapes, rendered in watercolor, acrylic and ink, are more dreamlike and meditative than his sculptures, offering an intimate glimpse of his visual universe. For Schacter, the paintings and works on paper encapsulate Thek's artistic philosophy: 'It was a never-ending, incomplete process.' 'Paul Thek: Seized by Joy. Paintings 1965-1988' is on view from May 29 through Aug. 2, A Texas Painter's Perfume That's Intended to Conjure 'Cowboy Sensuality' The Texas-born artist RF Alvarez began his career as a painter when his husband's job returned him to his home state. Now based in Austin, he depicts his queer inner circle with intimate paintings of parties, couples and solitary moments, at times blending or contrasting with the state's landscape. Lately, he's also been channeling those themes of what he calls 'Texas heritage and carnal memory' through his first fragrance, called Carrasco. Named after his grandfather's favorite horse (Alvarez descends from a long line of cattle ranchers), the scent was created in collaboration with the Austin-based perfumer which engineered its smoky, animalic notes — among them Texas cedar, oak moss, birch tar and Tonkin musk — to evoke both his grandfather's truck and the sweaty clubs that the artist frequents. Encased in an earthy vessel created by the ceramist Peter Sheldon, a longtime friend of Alvarez's, Carrasco is limited to 100 bottles. The first half of these have already sold, with a second batch of 25 available now and a final drop coming in August. This marks Alvarez's second expansion beyond the canvas, after a line of ceramics he and Sheldon created in 2022. He says world building is central to his practice: 'I like the idea of developing a narrative of a Texas cultural landscape that's innately queer, sexy and trying to reconcile a past heritage and its future.' $250, available at A Hotel in Taos, N.M., With Adobe Walls and a 100-Year-Old Willow In the 1970s, the architect Michael Reynolds began building what he called Earthships — homes whose walls were made of beer cans, bottles and other waste — in Taos, N.M. This summer brings another sort of recycled lodging to northern New Mexico's high desert. Hotel Willa was a derelict 1960s motor lodge on the fringes of Taos's historic district. Now it's a 50-room boutique hotel whose restaurant and art gallery are overseen by deep-rooted locals. Maintaining a connection to the community is part of the ethos for the California-based hotel group Casetta; it's also a wise approach in a small town with a countercultural bent. The chef Johnny Ortiz-Concha, who grew up in the nearby Taos Pueblo, and the artist Maida Branch are helming the restaurant Juliette, named for Ortiz-Concha's mother. The menu will feature foraged herbs, coal-roasted vegetables and sodas dosed with medicinal plants, served on dishware by the Taos potter Logan Wannamaker. When gut renovating the property, Casetta kept the thick adobe walls, original wood beams (known as vigas) and a hundred-year-old willow tree. They added a sauna and cold plunge, rounded interior corners that are a signature of the local architectural vernacular and a 2,000-square-foot art gallery. The Paseo Project, a community arts nonprofit, manages it; the inaugural exhibition will showcase area artists and artisans, including some who contributed to Hotel Willa's construction. From about $250 a night, A New Beauty Brand Focused on After-Sun Skin Care The sunscreen market has seen a wave of innovation in recent years — less so the after-sun category, long the purview of bright green aloe vera gel. Zure Solaris, a new skin-care range by the British creative director Samuel Cheney and the Irish photographer Aaron Hurley, aims to redefine that ritual, with equal focus on cellular renewal and cinematic mood. 'It's that time of day when you come back to your hotel suite and blast the air-conditioning and have that first shower,' says Cheney, setting the scene for the brand's initial lineup: four formulas featuring its Solar Repair Complex, designed to inhibit hyperpigmentation, stimulate regeneration and calm inflammation. The line's Shower Rinse begins the reset, sloughing off the day's buildup while conditioning the skin. The Body Treatment, a lightweight moisturizer, is all about replenishment, with barrier-strengthening amino acids and tremella mushroom to boost collagen production. For the face, there's the Cooling Infusion, a quenching essence best straight from the fridge, and the Essential Serum, a multitasking formula designed to brighten and firm the skin. The founders appreciate the universality of golden hour, as reflected in the body products' transportive fragrance, which channels city rooftops and cliffside beaches with notes of spicy ginger, night-blooming flora and suede. From $58,
Al Jazeera
14-05-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
‘We need our bananas back': Traders left in limbo amid Malawi-Tanzania spat
Lilongwe, Malawi – Since he was young, Enock Dayton has made a living from bananas. The 30-year-old was born and raised in Molele, in the southern Malawian district of Thyolo, which was at the heart of local banana production until a plant virus devastated crops more than a decade ago. At his stall at Mchesi market, in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, Dayton serves customers from the bunches of green bananas that he has. 'I started this business when I was young, and we had farms where we were growing bananas and we would take trucks and bring them here and sell them to individuals,' he told Al Jazeera. But in 2013, the deadly banana bunchy top disease wiped out almost all the crops in the country. Farmers were asked to uproot their banana plants to avoid the spread of the virus; hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Bananas are Malawi's fourth biggest staple crop, after maize, rice and cassava, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The United Nations body – which is working with other organisations to help revive banana farming in the country – said in 2023 that with 'the right investments and strategic support, the banana sector has the potential to provide greater benefits in food and nutrition security and commercial value for growers, transporters, consumers and food processors'. But in the meantime, to maintain their businesses in the absence of sufficient local produce, farmers and fruit-sellers like Dayton turned to neighbouring Tanzania to import the crop and complement their own meagre local supplies. In 2023 alone, for instance, Malawi imported more than $491,000 worth of bananas, with the majority of that – 5,564,180kg (12,266,920lb) – coming primarily from Tanzania. The remainder came from South Africa and Mozambique. But this year, that arrangement came to a sudden halt. In March, Malawi said it was temporarily banning the import of some farm produce, including bananas, from Tanzania and other countries. The government said this was to help support local industries and stabilise the country's foreign exchange shortage, which has led to challenges that include the inability to import some necessities, like pharmaceuticals. But Malawi might have underestimated the effect of its bold move, observers say. In retaliation, in April, Tanzania banned the entry of all agricultural imports from Malawi, responding to what it described as restrictions on some of its exports. That ban also extended to South Africa, which for years prohibited the entry of bananas from Tanzania. This was bad news for Malawi, observers say, as it is more on the receiving end of trade between the neighbours. According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Malawi exports less than $50m worth of products to Tanzania, including soybean meal, soybeans and dried legumes, while it imports hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of mineral fuels, oil, distilled products, soaps, lubricants, cement and glassware, among other products. In its response, Dar es Salaam went a step further, extending its trade ban to the export of fertiliser from Tanzania to landlocked Malawi. It also threatened to stop goods en route to Malawi from passing through Tanzania. By land, Malawi depends on Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique for the import of goods. As it lacks direct access to the sea, Malawi utilises seaports in Tanzania and Mozambique. But the instability of the Mozambique route – due to insecurity caused by conflict, recent post-election violence and truck drivers facing harassment – made the deadlock with Tanzania a bigger challenge for industry. Businesses that rely on the import of farm produce started crying foul as their trucks of groundnuts and other produce stood in line at the Songwe border. Malawi also found itself in a tricky situation as it depends on Tanzania for its harbours to import fuel. Soon, even Kenya found itself entangled in the conflict as cargo from Malawi, which has to travel through Tanzania, was also stopped en route. The ensuing row shone a light on Malawi's precarious geographical location, as well as regional agreements aimed at facilitating trade, the efforts by individual nations to follow the rules, and the macroeconomic imbalances in a nation designated as one of the poorest in the world. After weeks of tensions, this month, a high-level meeting between Malawi and Tanzania appeared to have brokered the differences, paving the way for the lifting of the bans between the two countries, according to a spokesperson for Malawi's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For Ernest Thindwa, a political commentator based at the University of Malawi, the recent trade dispute does not exist in isolation – and should also be viewed from a political lens. Both countries are heading for polls this year, first Malawi in September and then Tanzania in November. Within an election environment, the dispute says something about the attempts by both countries' leaders to display patriotism and a sense of empowerment to their citizens, the analyst said. 'The current administration [in Malawi] wants to be seen to be delivering and they want to be seen to be responding to people's concerns,' Thindwa told Al Jazeera. 'And certainly they need to make sure that local producers are protected, which has become more urgent as we go towards elections.' Thindwa said that both Malawi and Tanzania are signatories to regional and international trade agreements, the frameworks of which entitle them to take measures to protect their trade interests when they deem necessary. However, he questioned the timing of these moves, asking why the initiatives by Malawi were not implemented earlier if they were indeed to protect local industries. Answering his own question, he said, 'Because then it might have not been an agent in terms of attracting votes.' 'What you would call subsistence or smallholder producers … would be significant for the government in terms of trying to win votes from such social groups,' he observed. Meanwhile, in Tanzania, something similar was at play in its decision to retaliate, Thindwa said. 'The incumbent administration in Tanzania wants to be seen to be responding to the needs and interests of its citizens. So the administration in that country, in Tanzania, also wanted to project an image that it cares for its people. That's why it responded rather quickly.' Broadly speaking, Thindwa noted that the trade dispute points to overall challenges African countries face – in terms of promoting internal trade, and trading more within Africa than with other continents. Citing the example of Angola, he said that despite it having oil, countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc continue to import oil from the Middle East. 'There is Angola there,' he said. 'Why can't they put together a regional project, for instance, and invest in the capabilities to make sure that the end product is being produced in Angola and Angola serves the region, to be much cheaper for the region? And it will make sure that the resources of the region remain within the region.' Such examples show that 'in spite of these trade protocols, Africa still struggles to encourage trade between member states', he said. 'So the case of Tanzania and Malawi is just a symptom of a huge challenge Africa faces in terms of promoting internal trade.' In a statement on May 9, Malawi's Ministry of Trade said Malawi and Tanzania had held bilateral discussions in Tanzania regarding the implementation and resolution of its prohibition order. After that, a letter from the ministry, addressed to Malawi's Revenue Authority, read: 'In this regard, I wish to advise that you facilitate the clearance of exports and imports of goods between the Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Tanzania. This, however, does not exempt importers from complying with legal and regulatory requirements, including obtaining the relevant licences and certifications from regulatory bodies.' After the talks, Charles Nkhalamba, Malawi's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, told Al Jazeera the neighbours had signed 'a joint communique' to resolve the dispute between them. The 'high-level discussions' were a result of 'robust diplomatic efforts' by the foreign ministries of both countries, he said in a message on WhatsApp, adding that Tanzania also 'acknowledg[ed] the economic circumstances that necessitated the import restrictions'. During the meeting, both parties agreed in principle on the importance of continuous engagement and communication on all matters impacting their bilateral trade relations, Nkhalamba added. Weeks earlier, Tanzania's Ministry of Agriculture also released a statement acknowledging that Lilongwe had reached out to Dar es Salaam to resolve the problem and stating that 'Tanzania is lifting a ban on export and import of agricultural produce to and from Malawi'. In principle, the trade war between the neighbours appears to have stalled for now. But experts told Al Jazeera that practically speaking, it will take time for the logistics to be sorted out and for things to return to normal for sellers left in limbo when their supplies dried up. At the market in Lilongwe, Dayton is eagerly awaiting the trucks of sweet bananas from across the border, so he has enough to sell to his customers. He is grateful for the cross-border trade, and the arrangement that has over the years helped business people like him make money selling the crop from their neighbours. But he also had mixed feelings as he reminisced about their lost opportunity to grow their own crops. 'The amount of money we used to have when we grew our own bananas is different from what we're earning now,' Dayton said. 'While we were growing and buying them at a cheap price … we were making a lot of money, apart from the transport [costs]. The ones from Tanzania are quite expensive. 'We need our bananas back.' A decade ago, Dayton was a casualty of a natural disaster that made his garden back in the village dormant. Now, he feels that he is a casualty of the decisions made by authorities in offices far away. 'What we want is a stable supply of bananas in this market,' he said. 'It's good because it provides for our families and the customers as well.'
