What do sharks and pop culture memes have in common? Not a lot you might be thinking. Although Jaws and a photo of Kim K on the red carpet with a funny caption might seem about as far away from each other as two things can get, they are both elements that Equifruit draws on in our marketing strategy to get fair pay for banana farmers into the hearts and minds of North American shoppers. Let’s rewind to the start. Equifruit is North America’s leading Fairtrade banana company, and the only Canadian banana importer that has been 100% Fairtrade since day one. In North America, Equifruit bananas are recognizable for their bold, colourful packaging, with cheeky slogans such as “the only banana to binge watch” and “the only banana that sharks eat”. Behind this high energy, pop exterior is a serious message: Equifruit is on a mission to get fair pay for banana farmers. By being impossible to ignore in the grocery aisle, we are aiming to make Equifruit Fairtrade bananas every customer’s first choice, supporting banana farmers through Fairtrade deals.
The problem with cheap bananas
Bananas are North America’s favourite fruit. By quite a margin. They are also the cheapest produce item in North American grocery stores. Today’s banana pricing dates back over a hundred years, when the founding banana companies sought to introduce bananas to the mainstream as a cheap, delicious fruit. Their business model was based on keeping prices low by paying little to nothing for land and labour in banana-growing countries and paying no heed to environmental concerns. Retailers took on this model with gusto and made low price bananas prominent in their stores. They still believe that shoppers see banana prices as a bellwether of all prices throughout the store. As a result, the price of bananas has not budged in over thirty years, despite inflation and the rising cost of almost everything else. This approach has disastrous consequences for the countries where bananas are grown. Banana growers are subsidizing cheap bananas through low wages, unpaid overtime and poor working conditions. This has got to change. We are long overdue an overhaul of banana pricing and procurement. And that’s where Equifruit comes in.
Enter Equifruit: your loudest and proudest Fairtrade banana fan club
Equifruit was set up in 2007 to tackle the exploitative dynamics in banana supply chains. Our strategy? Importing 100% Fairtrade-certified bananas to sell to the North American market. Under the rules of Fairtrade, Fairtrade-certified banana farmers get paid a Minimum Price for their fruit. This Minimum Price is set by Fairtrade International, with the input of growers on the ground, and factors in cost of sustainable production. Whilst the traditional banana market is subject to significant price fluctuations, the Fairtrade Minimum Price provides a consistent threshold income level. On top of the Minimum Price, for every case of bananas sold, Equifruit pays $1 US in Fairtrade Premium directly to growers. It’s up to the communities how they want to use this Premium, be it for environmental projects like recycling facilities and reforestation work, social projects like healthcare and education facilities, or economic projects like training and investments in climate resilience. The Fairtrade model is a corrective, better way of doing business. But with just 4% of the global banana market currently operating on Fairtrade terms, it needs visibility and cultural relevance to scale and for people to understand why it matters.
From boring brown to a pastel dreamscape: Equifruit’s branding journey
In 2013, Jennie Coleman, President and Co-owner of Equifruit, bought the Fairtrade banana business from the previous owners. Along with the metaphorical keys to the door, Jennie inherited the original Equifruit branding: an unremarkable brown box with a logo that looked a lot like a broccoli.
This came with an earnest brand tone and lengthy communications about the problems in the banana industry. The problem, Jennie realized, aside from the misleading broccoli, is that shoppers don’t want a guilt-inducing lecture when doing their weekly grocery shop. Let’s face it, you might be the most charitable person in the world, but on a Friday evening racing round Costco, you’re likely not thinking twice about which bananas, apples, or grapes to buy. At that time, faced with lengthy text and boring branding, customers simply weren’t excited by Fairtrade bananas. The Equifruit team faced a challenge: find a way to get people to care about banana farmers enough to put Equifruit Fairtrade bananas in their cart. The answer was clear: build a memorable, lovable brand that will make trade justice mainstream.
Enter Equifruit 2.0: Not just a pretty face
In the summer of 2020, Equifruit underwent the mother of all facelifts. A total rebrand to bring Equifruit into the present and make our brand as slick and covetable as the latest iPhone. The design agency had a clear brief: Equifruit’s mission and values were to stay the same, but the team wanted to show them in a way that resonates with today’s shoppers. Et voilà.
Equifruit’s new look is bright, bold and colourful with a stylized banana logo and pops of pastel colours. In minimal words for maximum impact, Equifruit’s messaging is emblazoned across their packaging: “farmers gotta get paid”, “100% Fairtrade”, designed to be highly memorable and eye-catching. With the rebrand, Equifruit has found a new language to connect with consumers and stand out from the crowd. Put simply, Equifruit is now impossible to ignore.
Speaking the language of tomorrow’s socially conscious shoppers
Equifruit’s new branding has proved effective for several reasons. The colour palette and style fits with the modern visual language of other ethical lifestyle brands, helping Gen Z and millennials to recognize Equifruit bananas as part of their world. On social media, Equifruit is tuned-in to current trends, using memes and pop culture references to stay relevant and engaging, whilst always coming back to the importance of fair pay for banana farmers.
In today’s attention-poor society, long paragraphs of text and explanations are a sure-fire way to turn the public off your brand. That’s why the Equifruit website is visually striking, with pop art bananas cascading down the screen and a shark munching a banana like a video game. Don’t be fooled, the serious messaging is still there, but presented in bitesize chunks that are brightly coloured, written in our signature sassy Equifruit tone.
It’s a winning formula: first we make people smile and laugh, so that they’re feeling good when they read about fair pay for banana farmers. We have found this to be more effective at getting people on board than making them feel guilty or telling them off for buying the wrong bananas. Equifruit sells bananas that do good and look good while doing it.
Coffee shop, art gallery, Equifruit does it all
The fresh produce industry has several trade shows throughout the year where hundreds of growers and importers come together under one roof to showcase their fruit and vegetables. Equifruit has built a reputation for the craziest off-the-wall activities at the shows that make our booth stand out from the rest. In spring 2025, Equifruit set up a café at a US trade show, printing attendees’ faces on the foam of their coffees to illustrate the message that upgrading to Fairtrade bananas for an entire year costs less than the average coffee. Later that same year, the team built a mock mini-museum complete with display cases and a plant wall, again to highlight the affordability of Fairtrade bananas, this time in comparison to a pair of socks (the socks are more expensive). The Equifruit team is now famous at trade shows across North America as the “banana badasses” fighting for fair pay for banana farmers.
These sorts of events are designed to surprise and delight retailers, stopping them in their tracks and educating them about Fairtrade bananas. And it’s working. Since the rebrand, Equifruit is now selling over four times the volume of Fairtrade bananas, all helping to drive positive impact for banana farmers and their communities. Equifruit bananas are stocked at major retailers across Canada and is steadily expanding into the USA.
The Equifruit quest for Global Fairtrade Banana Domination
Since 2007, Equifruit has grown from a niche player in the banana market to a national disruptor and North America’s leading Fairtrade banana importer. We are driven by the impact that growing banana sales can have for banana farmers. Whilst the cost for consumers of switching to Fairtrade bananas is small, it has a huge positive impact for farmers, who receive the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium. Equifruit proves that you can be loud and proud, cheeky and sassy, and also deliver serious social justice messages. We encourage all shoppers, retailers and brands to rethink what ethical marketing can look like. The example of Equifruit Fairtrade bananas shows that positive impact can come from the staple, everyday items. When branding is used to drive justice, everyone wins. Stay tuned for Equifruit’s Global Fairtrade Banana Domination. Follow Equifruit on Linkedln, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter
