Thank you to everyone who visited our stand at the fair in Berlin over the weekend of the 7/9th February. Fruit Logistica 2008 welcomed more than 50,000 visitors. We hope you enjoyed the fair as much as we all did? Our stand certainly presented the opportunity to enjoy a glass of champagne whilst talking to you about your interest in BONITA! To all, your presence was greatly appreciated and enabled us to have a really successful fair. Greetings from the whole BONITA Team.

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Visit us at Fruit Logistica 7-9 February 2008 Hall 5.2 Stand A-11

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The Turner and Growers sponsored pair had impressive performances in the hot conditions that soared over 30C deg. Turner and Growers is the exclusive importer of BONITA BANANAS in New Zealand.

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BONITA is proud of the Ecuadorian Team for its impressive World Cup performance against the top teams in the competition! SI SE PUEDE ECUADOR!

During 90 minutes of a World Cup soccer game, the average player can lose between 3 to 5 kilos in weight. In order to fuel the team, BONITA has supplied the 2006 Ecuadorian Football Team chef with all the BONITA PLANTAINS that the team can eat.



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Bonita Europe is aware of recent retail and consumer groups concerns regarding the use of plant protections products in the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. We welcome the level of interest in this important subject but are concerned that the issue is poorly understood by many consumers and does not fully represent the work of companies, such as ours, who work diligently to produce safe and healthy food.

For this reason we felt it important to summarise our system re policy, record - keeping, traceability and residue testing throughout our supply chain.

For more details:

Environmental Policy

Food Safety March 2006

MRL Schematic Overview

Bonita Approved Positive Pesticide List 2006

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Once again Fruit Logistica was a great success, with more than 35,000 people attending the fair! BONITA wishes to thank everyone involved in creating this exciting event. BONITA not only presented its wide variety of fruit but let the attendees enjoy typical Ecuadorian food.

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Appearing in the US/LEAP News Letter, June 2005, was an article entitled "Organizing Efforts in Ecuador Stymied". Bonita was mentioned as buying fruit from an independent banana producer who, in the opinion of US/LEAP, violated workers rights, including the right-of-free association and collective bargaining. Bonita was asked to intercede.

"Efforts to organize banana workers in the world’s largest exporter of bananas continue to encounter stiff resistance. In the latest initiatives, FENACLE, the campesino group leading banana worker organizing in Ecuador, reports that a Bonita supplier has fired union leaders and members in efforts to squash independent union drives".

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International Banana Conference II - Views from the Major Banana Companies

A statement by Eric Crisman, Senior Corporate Advisor and Director of External Affairs. Pacific Fruit/Bonita

For Pacific Fruit, global distributors of Bonita banana, the event was stimulating and constructive. A broad range of participants from the supply chain openly discussed key issues that organizers identified as accelerating the “Race to the Bottom”.

In order to effect change in the banana industry, we recommend future IBC formats include greater participation from "big retail". The organizers have correctly identified retail as contributing the greatest downward pressure on banana pricing. Their influence creates hardship and inequity on the banana worker/producer level. But "big retail" is in business to offer their stakeholders maximum profitability. Indeed, the goal of “big retail” is to continually improve efficiencies and lower prices for their customer. They have no incentive to respond to price issues without the aggressive inter-action of producer country governments and consumer pressure.

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Brussels, April 28-30, 2005

Pacific Fruit Group participated in the International Banana Conference II, "Reversing the Race to the Bottom", in Brussels, April 10-11, 2005. This forum brought together a broad range of supply chain stakeholders to openly discuss the problems and potential solutions in the banana industry.

These issues included a discussion of the macro-economics of the banana industry, the current perceived crisis in the EU regarding the proposed banana regime and its effect on the supply chain, environmental and health issues, worker rights issues, and policy for sustainable trade in the banana business.

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Paris, October 8-10, 2004

Pacific Fruit Group, represented Bonita banana as an Industry Speaker at the Intertek/BSR Social Responsibility Conference in Paris, of October 2004, at the first agricultural workshop, "Challenges and Solutions in the supply chain work-place."

An excerpt from the workshop presentation: "Pacific Fruit Group, global distributors of Bonita bananas focuses with supply-side vendors on external market protocols that impact the perishable fruit industry. In Ecuador, educating the supply-side, the growers, packers, transporters, to the International Codes of Conduct that are mandated for international trading partnership is the greatest challenge that confronts Pacific Fruit. Lack of education is an endemic cultural issue. Pacific Fruit works closely with EBNSA, the Ecuadorian trading company supplying product to the international market-place. EBNSA seeks to fulfill a responsibility by assisting their sub-vendors, the independent producer network that supplies them fruit, to comply with established standards.

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