From saints to bananas

Sometimes you just can’t be prepared enough. This morning’s agenda was to go to the bustling town of Las Galletas to film its small fish market, and then go on to the village of Los Abrigos to film the fishing boats in the small harbour. In the afternoon we would try to find fruit plantations. We got our stuff together and packed up the car, piling Quirky on top, and set off to Las Galletas.

When we got to the fish market we were met with closed stalls. A market closed? ‘It’ll be open again tomorrow’ someone told us. Only when we asked around did we discover that it was Saint Carmen’s day. Saint Carmen is the patron saint of fishermen, and in the predominantly Catholic Canary Islands where fishing is perceived as a birthright, today is an important day. We will return to the fish market tomorrow, but today we continued on to Los Abrigos. There, it was the last day of a weekend of fiesta, again in celebration for Saint Carmen’s day. A couple of decorated fishing boats were cruising up and down the coast, filled with people singing.

To me, the fishing industry here is such a dichotomy. In these oceanic islands, fish and fishing are central to many people’s lives and is deeply ingrained into the culture and religion. Fathers are proud to teach their sons to fish, to hand their skills down. Yet estimates put the fish population of the islands at less than 10 percent of what it used to be. There simply are no fish left to catch. It is impossible to make a living by fishing any more, and totally unrealistic to even consider that your sons and grandsons will survive as fishermen. Watching the people of Los Abrigos celebrating Saint Carmen made me realise how deep rooted the culture of the fish is and, given the depleted fish stocks, how doomed. Within a generation, unless the fish are protected to ensure the survival of the fishing industry, celebrating Saint Carmen will be merely a tradition celebrated from memory.

Going bananas

From fishing we moved on to banana plantations. The Canary Islands produce an average of 240 million kilos of bananas annually. Tenerife, together with the island of La Palma, are the main producers. We were looking to film the fruit export industry for the first film, so what better fruit to choose while in Tenerife than bananas?

Quite by chance we met Señor Roberto Santos driving out of his plantation and we explained what we were looking for. The Canarians are so friendly and helpful that you can simply walk up to someone and ask their advice. As each island is quite small, if they themselves can’t help you, they mostly know someone who can. In this case Señor Santos was wonderful. He kindly offered to take us to the cooperative where we could film to our heart’s content. This is how we came to film at the S.A.T. CIA Platanera del Sur, Arona. Once there Señor Santos explained the process and how the cooperative works. This cooperative serves many of the plantations of the area. The planters bring their crop to the cooperative where it is registered. After the delivery, the cooperative takes care of rest of the process, and the planters get 70 percent of the sales price.

We saw the whole process from the arrival of the bananas, how they are cut into the bunches, washed, sorted into grades, and packed into boxes for export. Almost all the bananas are shipped to mainland Spain, from where the best quality are exported to other European countries.

In one day we got a glimpse into two of Tenerife’s most important industries: the fishing industry and the banana export industry.

Thanks to Sr. Roberto Santos, and to the S.A.T. CIA Platanera del Sur, Arona.