WHEN NEWS of the merger between the world’s two largest banana producers reached my ears, I looked at my hands. A cupped hungry hand is comparable to the shorter, curled bananas from small farms on islands in the Caribbean. The long, large bananas grown on mainland South America speak of giant plantations run by great corporations.The merger between Fyffes and Chiquita will create the largest banana supplier in the world and 80 per cent of the market will then be delivered by just three companies. This coming amid a supermarket price war, with banana values hitting the lowest prices ever, spells disaster for the smaller producers who cannot possibly compete. The Fairtrade Foundation, which organises small producers into groups, then guarantees premium prices should they comply with