A fruit distributor who faked labels to pass off its bananas as being from the Canaries has had its fraudulent activities halted by a major police operation.
The Alicante-based firm is said to have sold up to 2000 tonnes of bananas grown in Madeira and other parts, for which it forged documentation to indicate that they were from the Canaries, whose bananas are highly prized throughout Spain.
The intervention by police came after repeated complaints from Asprocan, the association of official banana producers in the Canaries, which has fought hard to secure a crucial EU geographical designation of origin label certifying that the island’s bananas comply with rigid standards and traceability requirements.
The distributor came to the attention of the Canarian producers some time ago and had been specifically barred from selling bananas from the islands due to its fraudulent practices in relabelling its products.
Raids on its premises in Alicante, where police seized extensive evidence of the origins of its relabelled ‘Canarian’ bananas and forged paperwork, were accompanied by operations in cities throughout Spain, including Valencia, Vigo and Bilbao, where the fruit was openly available in markets.
The Spanish authorities worked closely with Europol – Europe’s Agency for law enforcement cooperation – to gather evidence of the organised fraud, which is said to have cost the Canarian banana sector millions of euros. The Alicante firm faces a range of charges from consumer fraud to illegal importation and forgery of commercial documents.
Bananas are a crucial part of the economy of the Canary Islands, contributing over 500 million euros to the region’s GDP and accounting for more than 12,000 direct jobs, as well as many more indirect ones in industries such as packaging. Iin 2024, 425 million kilos of Canary bananas were marketed, of which 360 million were sold in Spain.
