Jennie Coleman, Equifruit Inc.

Equifruit BB #:329901 is an importer and distributor of Fairtrade bananas based in Montreal, Quebec. Jennie Coleman serves as its president and is a co-owner along with Kim Chackal.

Both are relentless in their quest to change the narrative for the banana trade, especially when it comes to a livable wage and decent working conditions for those who grow, pack, and ship them to the rest of the world.

We asked Jennie about the past, the present, and the future of banana sales, and how Equifruit intends to have a significant role.

Q: Tell us about your background and entry into the fruit and vegetable world.   

I was born in Canada and grew up between France and Canada, with a year of studies in Germany. Just after finishing university I lived in Namibia for a few years, where I worked in a school and set up a library for the local community.

After Namibia, I had a long career in the corporate world, living and working across the globe—from China to Berlin, the United Kingdom, and eventually back to Canada.

That international journey brought with it a wealth of life experience. You don’t just switch off the things you learn by living in different cultures.

Everywhere you go, the message is the same: people want safety, security, a future for their children, and we all deserve to be treated with fairness and dignity in our lives and work.

In 2013, I acquired Equifruit, driven by a long-standing itch to step into entrepreneurship. Equifruit, or EquiCosta as it was called then, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to marry my business background with my passion for justice and sustainability.

Q: What intrigued you most about EquiCosta (now Equifruit)? Did it seem like an impossible challenge or just an interesting opportunity?  

I was initially drawn to Equifruit because fruit is fun and, frankly, something I could understand after years of working with engineers in my corporate career!

But as I dug deeper in those early years, I uncovered the troubling realities of the banana industry. The more I learned, the more I realized just how urgently things needed to change, and the more fired up I became about Equifruit’s mission.

Equifruit isn’t just a fruit company, it’s a vehicle for positive impact. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to quality and to being a best-in-class supplier partner. But what sets us apart is our unwavering dedication to doing business differently.

The banana industry has a long, dark history of exploiting growers. For too long, the low price of bananas has been subsidized by farmer poverty.

Fairtrade offers an alternative: a business model based on equitable partnership, not exploitation. For me, this is really the only way trade should be conducted. As Fairtrade often says, “It’s trade, not aid”—this conviction has carried me through every step of my journey with Equifruit.

As Fairtrade often says, “It’s trade, not aid”—this conviction has carried me through every step of my journey with Equifruit.

Q: What were your initial goals after buying the company? How have they evolved over the years?

After ploughing all my savings into Equifruit in 2013, my initial goal for the company was just to stay afloat.

Fortunately, we quickly stabilized and since then we have remained laser-focused on growing banana sales, knowing this has a direct positive impact for local communities, who are paid the Fairtrade Minimum Price and the Fairtrade Premium for their bananas.

Currently, only 4 percent of bananas sold globally are Fairtrade, and in Canada it’s just 3 percent, so we have huge potential to grow and convert more of the banana market to Equifruit.

Q: How much impact have market conditions had on your strategies, like today’s inflation and economic uncertainty?

We’re always on the alert for market conditions and developments that will impact our supply chain.

That said, we’ve been doing this for a long time now and have come out the other side of enough cycles of turbulent market conditions to know we can weather the storms that come our way. These challenges won’t deter us from our mission.

Q: What’s the hardest part of pitching Fairtrade bananas to a U.S. grocery retailer?

Changing mindsets on banana pricing is hands-down the hardest part of my job. We meet grocery retailers who love Equifruit, love our mission, and understand the need for change, but they’re afraid of raising the price of bananas for fear of putting off shoppers.

Fair pay and decent working conditions for banana farmers might sound like a no brainer, but we’re up against decades of artificially low banana prices. We hear concern from retailers that Equifruit is a more expensive option, but that’s because our prices reflect a sustainable production price with Fairtrade standards.

Other bananas are too cheap because they don’t take into account the elements necessary to have a sustainable supply chain.

What’s more, consumers are not as sensitive to price increases as retailers think. And research shows that the majority of shoppers are happy to pay more for a product to ensure farmers are being paid a fair price.

We’re encouraging grocery retailers to do a full category reset on bananas. This means closing the chapter on low-price bananas and partnering with Equifruit for a responsible procurement commitment and a banana supply chain that’s fair for growers, retailers, and consumers.

In our experience, retailers who partner with Equifruit often benefit from a halo effect: customers are happy to shop at a store with a responsible procurement policy, AND employees are proud to work there too.

In our experience, retailers who partner with Equifruit often benefit from a halo effect: customers are happy to shop at a store with a responsible procurement policy, AND employees are proud to work there too.

Q: Have you ever felt your successes were more hard-won because you’re a woman?

In my early years with Equifruit, I was often talked down to, as if selling Fairtrade bananas was some kind of Girl Guide project that was cute and laudable but impossible to execute in the real world.

But this only made me more determined, and my business partner Kim Chackal and I refused to take no for an answer.

For the last three years, Equifruit has ranked on the Toronto Globe and Mail’s list of top growing companies in Canada, which definitely feels like a win for our proudly women-led company.  

Q: How would you describe your leadership style? Would others characterize it the same way?

My leadership philosophy is reflected in Equifruit’s statement of values: we espouse compassion, creativity, and commitment to change.

I try to model these values by sticking to a few guiding mantras, including: “don’t work with jerks,” “refuse to be ignored,” and my favorite: “Si se puede,” which means “We can do it!”

These mantras are a constant in the management of Equifruit, providing an ethical framework my team and I can rely on.

Q: You have many achievements, awards, and accolades, is there a failure or roadblock in the past that helped define your aspirations or shaped the way you approach challenges? 

The pace of change in the grocery industry can be frustrating for me and my team. Because bananas are a category leader, any decisions on their sourcing and pricing often have to go to the very top to get approval.

As a result, it can take a long time to make steps forwards. At Equifruit, we’re so fired up about delivering on our mission, we want to see change now.

However, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we understand that transformation and mindset shifts take time and require patience.

Q: Let’s talk about Fairtrade, do most people even undertand the term and what it means for the banana trade or other industries?

When we talk to people about Fairtrade, most people understand it to be something positive, but they don’t necessarily understand how it works.

Fairtrade International is the certification we use—it’s the most recognized and trusted ethical certification globally. It’s also applied to other products like coffee, chocolate, wine.

At its core, Fairtrade is about paying farmers fairly for the fruit they grow. It’s about decent working conditions, health and safety for farmers and workers, supply chains free from exploitation and child labor, and environmental stewardship.

When you explain it to people like this, it’s very hard not to be on board with the concept.

By calling ourselves and our supporters “banana badasses,” we’re signaling that something brave is happening here—we’re taking a stand against the norms of the banana industry.

Q: When did the “Badass” campaign get underway? Were you concerned about pushback?

Kim first used the term “Banana Badass” in a post on LinkedIn. People loved it, so we started to use it more and more to describe the people who support Equifruit’s mission.

We have now basically adopted the term as an unofficial brand asset. It’s a succinct way of encapsulating Equifruit’s brand and the attitude we need on the retail side to get behind our mission and stimulate change.

By calling ourselves and our supporters “banana badasses,” we’re signaling that something brave is happening here—we’re taking a stand against the norms of the banana industry.

Changing global trade is not for the faint of heart, you have to be a real badass to do that!

Q: What are your goals for Equifruit for the rest of 2025? Will geopolitics play a role?

We’re working hard to expand our partnerships with major retailers across Canada and the United States.

We’re also working on a very exciting project of compostible packaging for our bananas to reduce waste in our supply chain, which we hope to roll out this year.

Q: Where do you see yourself, your team, and Equifruit in five years? Would you consider seguing into other fruits or vegetables in the future?

Equifruit’s future is clear: we’re on a one-way ride to global Fairtrade banana domination. Watch this space!