History of VREL


Map of Ghana Ghana is located on the West Coast of Africa, about 750 km north of the equator on the Gulf of Guinea. Volta River Estates Limited (VREL) is situated on the boards of the Volta River near Akosombo, south of the Volta Lake, the biggest man-made lake in Africa.

VREL was established in 1988 by a Ghanaian/Dutch venture ship with the support of the Dutch Financierings Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO, a financing organisation for developing countries).

Before this initiative, there was no commercial cultivation of bananas for export in the country. The scheme was supported by the Ghanaian Government, which was, and still is, keen on promoting the establishment of non-traditional exports, especially agriculture, in the country.

In 1996 the Max Havelaar Foundation in Holland expanded its activity in Fairtrade with bananas and VREL gained recognition as the first banana grower to be a Fairtrade partner from the Max Havelaar Foundation under its umbrella organization, Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO). Till today VREL is the only producer of Fairtrade bananas on the African continent.

Environmentally, it was not too difficult for VREL to obtain the Fairtrade certificate, because right from the start VREL minimized the use of agro-chemicals. To replace the use of chemicals, VREL uses mainly manpower, employing close to 500 permanent workers in a region of the country with an alarming jobless rate. Under the Fairtrade agreement, VREL workers hold a 25% stake in the company, which is held in trust.

In addition to its Fairtrade accreditation, VREL was audited for EUREPGAP certification in September 2002, and VREL was subsequently certified by EUREPGAP. The company has received several awards for creditable performance, including the national award for Export Achievements in 1995.

The company exports 85% of its fruit, now branded oké and eko-oké, to Europe through AgroFair, a Fairtrade Fruit Company owned by banana, mango and pineapple growers in the developing world of which VREL is one of the shareholders.

VREL has faced and survived many setbacks in its history including a Black Sigatoka attack in 1990, export restrictions imposed by the EU in 1993-2002, a drought in 1998 and, most recently, devastating windstorms which caused great damage to the plantation in both 1999 and 2002.


the storm Especially the storm in October 2002 could have destroyed a less dynamic and resourceful organisation. 80% of the production capacity was destroyed. It was only in 2005 that VREL had overcome this windstorm completely, thanks to fresh capital injection from AgroFair and the shareholders, and brought the production back at a stable 5000 boxes weekly.

Managing Director Huub van den Broek tells about the difficult days that the storm in 2002 caused: "Windstorms are common in Ghana. They occur when the seasons change, in September-October and March-April, when the zone between the air from the Sahara and the tropical Atlantic air pushes its way over Ghana. In October 2002 I knew from the start it went wrong. It became pitch black. I had never seen that before. Everything was flying through the air. It lasted for about one and a half hours. After that there was not one tree standing up straight.

These storms are always very local. That is also why the plantation is divided in five sites, which are relatively far apart. The three sites that were affected by the storm were past saving. Everything had to be replanted. We made a rescue plan and stuck to it. It was bad luck that it occurred in October, because it is the start of the dry season and it is almost impossible to plant. We had to wait till April before we could plant the first ten hectares and we continued planting ten hectares a month, so it took us twenty months to replant all the 200 effected hectares. Nine months after the last planting we had everything back in production. That was about August 2005. To prevent this kind of disaster in the future we have purchased an iron wire or 'propping' system to protect our banana trees, but the system has yet to arrive."