Orange juice is a several
billion dollar industry. Brazil is the world's
largest citrus producer. Here, on almost 600,000
hectares of land, oranges are grown some of them becoming
Germany’s favorite juice. Thousands make their
living picking oranges. But there’s much to criticize
about their working conditions. You're under extreme pressure,
and accidents can happen because you're concentrating
on the harvest and get careless. You’re on top of a ladder with
a heavy bag on your shoulders. They should treat us like
human beings, not like livestock. Sure, we depend on them,
but they also depend on us. Who else is going
to pick their oranges? Is there any truth to
these accusations? We embark on a journey
to Brazil to investigate: how is the orange
juice produced there? 4:30 AM. The many orange
pickers in the state of Sao Paulo are already
on their feet. Among them
is Afonso. Like any other day, he has
eight hours of work ahead of him. This canister holds
5 liters of water. But that's not enough for a
day's work, the sun is too strong. I need two of these canisters
to get through the day. You drink ten
liters a day? Yes, exactly. The
sun is very hot. Temperatures on the plantations can
reach up to 35 degrees celsius. Directly under the
sun, it feels even hotter. For 6 years, Afonso
has been picking oranges for the juice industry
from Monday to Saturday. In a good month, he
earns about 250 euros. That is more than the
Brazilian minimum wage. Yet he barely manages to
make ends meet for himself, his wife and their daughter. I like the work,
though many don't. But everyone here
needs it, they have to work. Many also
have families. You can get by with what you earn,
but there’s nothing left to save. It's tiring. But even though it's hard: I want my
daughter to have what I didn't have. No matter
how hard it is. Afonso's wife also used to
work as an orange picker. Now he is the
sole breadwinner. Because Afonso would like to
spare her the work in the fields. I don't want her
to suffer like I do. You work in the sun,
rain, cold, extreme heat, it's physically
exhausting. A bag weighs
27 kilos. That's too much. I don’t mean for women
in general, but for my wife. I don't want her to have to
endure what I go through in the field. What exactly do Afonso and his
colleagues experience in the field? We want to accompany them, but filming
the pickers at work is not so easy, as we’re about
to find out. Ubirajara, the village where
Afonso lives, is rather remote. Just around 5,000
people normally live here. But between May and December
that number can grow to 6,000. This is because the
region around Ubirajara which is in the
state of Sao Paulo is home to most of
Brazil's orange plantations. Many are seasonal workers who come to
the village from northeastern Brazil, some 2,000
kilometers away, where people have fewer
opportunities to earn money. In Sao Paulo, they work
for a few months each year before returning home
after the harvest is finished. To reach the plantations, Afonso
has to travel by bus for 45 minutes. The ride is organized
by the company, but the workers aren’t
compensated for this time. We would like to accompany Afonso, but
his employer won’t give us permission. We ask on other plantations too,
but do not get permission to shoot. Most claim it’s due to
Covid-19 security measures. But our team has attracted
attention in the area: it seems we are being watched. We were hoping to visit Afonso
and his family again in the afternoon. But that’s not
possible anymore. The plantation owner
has informed Afonso that he has
violated his contract. The apartment he rents is
provided by his employer. And according
to the contract, he is not allowed to let
outsiders in ? including us. Even though our visit was arranged with
Afonso's supervisor the day before, Afonso is banned from
working for eleven days, losing almost half
of his monthly salary. At Afonso's request, we
do not contact his employer. But we ask the association of
Brazil’s major citrus producers, CitrusBR, to
clarify the situation. Since we are still being watched,
we call off the shoot with Afonso. We don't want to get
him into any more trouble. The fact that our visit had
such drastic consequences for Afonso raises
more questions for us. How exactly does the
orange industry work in Brazil? Around 75% of the world's orange
juice exports come from the country. To make it, workers pick between 65 and 110 billion
oranges a year, by hand. The industry is dominated by
three multinational companies, Louis Dreyfus,
Citrosuco and Cutrale. They are responsible for a
large part of the juice exports. About half of the oranges
for global juice production come from their
own plantations. The other half comes from independent
farmers who supply the industry. Days after we
last saw Afonso, we finally get permission to shoot
at an orange field in Sao Paulo. The visit is organized by the
juice companies’ association on the plantation of
one of their suppliers. Unlike in supermarkets back home,
the oranges here are green and yellow. This has nothing to do with
ripeness, but rather with temperature. The green chlorophyll in the peel only
breaks down below 12 degrees Celsius, and this is what
makes them orange. In this field, 30 workers pick
oranges for consumption in Brazil and the global
juice industry. Using a ladder, the workers
pick the fruit from the trees, which are up to
five meters tall. A filled sack weighs
about 27 kilos. In the beginning, I
did everything wrong. Now I know that you work the
tree from top to bottom in one go. When I started, I picked all the
trees individually just at the bottom, and then I picked them all
again individually just at the top. I put the boxes upside down or in the
wrong place, it was very complicated. We notice the tremendous
speed at which the workers pick. With their bare hands, each
of them harvests about 1.6 tons of oranges a day. So on average, each one fills just
under eight 27-kilo bags per hour Those who can't keep up this
fast pace risk losing their job at least according
to the union. We meet
Aparecido Bispo. He works for the
agricultural union Feraesp, which also conducts
independent studies documenting the working conditions
on the plantations. These companies only keep the
workers who pick a certain amount. To be able to do
the job next year, they have to harvest
an average of 60 bags. In addition, the boss, known as the
“gato,” constantly exerts pressure. This is because his salary also depends
on how much the workers harvest. The billion-dollar juice companies pay
the legal minimum wage of 1,200 reais, the equivalent of around
200 euros a month, regardless of the
amount harvested. This wage is barely
enough to survive in Brazil. That's why, according to the union,
many workers try to collect even more so they can top up
their pay with bonuses. We meet Ibiapaba
Netto, director of CitrusBR, the association of
the three juice giants. He is the voice of the
Brazilian orange juice industry. He explains that the
productivity principle is there to reward
those who work hardest. This increases an average
salary to about 280 euros. Although Netto states that he
does not know the specific quantities workers are
expected to harvest, he struggles to understand the
criticism of the productivity principle. In every job, you have
to reach a certain goal in order to
continue working. That doesn't seem
strange to me. You have a certain goal
and it has to be achieved. I don't see why it should
be different in orange picking. Here on the plantation where the
association has given us permission to film, conditions
appear ideal. Ibiapaba Netto assures us that
what we see here is common practice across the
citrus industry. Workers are wearing
personal protective equipment: goggles and gloves
against the sharp thorns of the trees and leg protection
against poisonous snake bites. These are required by
labor law on all orange farms. The industry association
assures us this is also written in the contracts with their
suppliers and orange pickers. But the union tells
us a different story. With the union’s help, we find
a small plantation in Sao Paulo, where we shoot unnoticed
and without permission. Here, things
look very different. Some of the workers don’t
have snake protection or gloves. We cannot say with certainty
whether these oranges are also
intended for juice. But what we see here is no
exception, say the trade unionists, also in the
juice industry. Abel Barreto
agrees. The 70 year-old
has dedicated his life to fighting for the rights
of Brazilian orange pickers. He was head of the
Feraesp union until 2017. Though he is now retired, Abel
Barreto still maintains close contact with the workers
in Ubirajara. Which is how he learns firsthand about
the conditions on the plantations. The workers rarely have
any protective equipment. Especially at smaller suppliers,
where conditions are worse, they do not follow health
and safety regulations. Companies have been allowed
to outsource work since 2017. This means that they can
hand over work and responsibility for it to third parties
? including individuals. As the Ministry
of Labor explains, it’s especially these
"subcontractors" who often lack the financial
resources for protective gear or compliance
with labor laws. As outsourcing has
grown since 2017, the problems for orange
pickers have grown too. We always find violations when
third-party companies are involved. The working conditions at the smaller
producers are often not the same as those of the big companies
that purchase the fruit. Prosecutor José Maturana has
been monitoring labor law violations for 25 years, including
on orange plantations. On-site inspections
are part of his job. Time and again, he
encounters unregistered pickers working off
the books. He describes to us the violations he
encounters when inspecting workers: Their living conditions
are precarious, they have no personal
protective equipment. This is what pictures of
former inspections show. In the last seven years, the
Ministry of Labor in Sao Paulo has recorded over
1,300 violations. Mainly among the industry's smaller
suppliers, as the prosecutor tells us. There’s often no place for workers
to have a proper meal or even toilets. We also see the
mishandling of agrochemicals. Maturana and his colleagues
usually carry out inspections on the basis of
specific complaints. For a few years now, the number
of inspections has been decreasing. What is the
reason for this? The inspections are not a priority for
politicians, the prosecutor explains. Since the country has been
in a severe economic crisis, funds have been cut and
there is a lack of personnel And on-site inspections need just
that: time, money and personnel. Also because they can only
take place with police protection. We don't conduct inspections
without security personnel because we never know the
level of hostility we’ll encounter. We often encounter supervisors
who are prone to violence and who have numerous
workers reporting to them. It is often drummed into them
that government inspection is there to take away their jobs
instead of improving their conditions. That’s is why we
only go with security. We ask
Ibiapaba Netto. What does he know about the
conditions on the plantations, especially with
independent suppliers? 50,000 people work
in the fields every year and I guarantee you that in our
fields, in the fields of the industry, the working conditions
are state of the art. And our suppliers are encouraged, motivated and
trained to do their best. If someone doesn't play by the
rules, that has to be addressed. But violations are the
exception, not the rule. Whether that’s true
or not, we can’t say. However, prosecutor José
Maturana reports that conditions did not improve
during the pandemic. And he describes
further problems. During the last inspection
of an orange plantation, we discovered a group of
about 37 workers. It was the cold season: some
of them were living in apartments without bedding, without
adequate mattresses, without protection
from the cold. We also witnessed
similar housing conditions, but can show them only in
part to protect the workers. This is accommodation that
companies rent to migrant workers. These images show footage from
2020 by Swiss NGO Public Eye: workers living in cramped
quarters, thin, broken mattresses, hardly any
furniture. Partly without protection from the
often chilly evening temperatures between June and
August in Sao Paulo. The unions too report
poor housing conditions. There are no decent
beds, no bathroom, no decent place to rest before
going to work the next day. The conditions in many
houses are terrible. And the next morning they have
to get up, without having recovered, to go back to picking
oranges in the fields. Citrus producers Citrosuco, Cutrale
and Louis Dreyfus write to inform us that their housing conditions
meet the required standards No official figures or information
on housing is available for the independent
suppliers. Trade unionist Aparecido Bispo is in contact with many
workers in the region. He says that despite poor
housing or working conditions, many are too afraid to
complain or file a lawsuit. The companies keep a record
of the workers who complain, and they can forget
about being hired again. This practice
should be banned! People should not risk being
punished for demanding their rights. Companies blacklisting
workers ? can it be true? Our team meets a local lawyer
who wants to remain anonymous at all costs for fear
of the companies. He knows several workers
who are not satisfied. But the fear of possible consequences
from filing a complaint is great. He forwards us a voice
message from one of his clients. Please, forget
about my complaint! We need this work, my family
and I can't afford to lose this job! Please excuse me. What can we do? Industry association
CitrusBR writes to us: During our research we
learned that it’s especially workers on the supplier’s
plantations the smaller and independent companies
- who are not always well protected. We are on our way to meet
former farmer Irani Biazotti. We don't know what working conditions
were like for him in the fields. But he tells us that he, too, was
under enormous pressure as a supplier. My name is Irani Biazotti, I worked
as an orange farmer for 30 years. All of a sudden I had to give it
up and leave everything behind. All I’m left with is
sadness and my memories. On his 60 hectares of
land, he farmed oranges, which he sold to Cutrale and
Citrosuco, two major citrus exporters. He did not have
fixed contracts for the regular purchase
of his oranges, he says. The big industry players
only bought oranges when the harvest from their
own fields was not enough. The purchase price
often fluctuated. At times, he says, he had to sell
his oranges at absurdly low prices. In the end, he could no longer cover
the costs of production and harvesting, and it was costing him too
much to maintain his plantation. For 30 years I worked in the
fields with love and dedication, until I was so indebted that
I had to give up everything. Which is very sad. Biazotti is 75, and it will take
him at least four more years, he calculates, to
pay off his debts. He recently joined a class
action lawsuit in London against juice
giant Cutrale. Represented by
the law firm PGMBM, more than 1,500 former farmers
are suing for financial compensation. The allegation is that
Cutrale was part of a cartel that colluded to push down
the purchase price of oranges, bankrupting
small farmers. Cutrale denies
the allegations. The company however has already
admitted to price fixing once before, in 2016. While filming, we meet a
woman who has also filed a lawsuit against one of
the big companies. To protect her identity,
we will call her Vitória. She has been working as a picker
in the orange fields of Sao Paulo for 27 years, having come here
from northeastern Brazil as a child. Her parents wanted to build
a better life for themselves. And in the beginning,
they were doing just that. For me, orange
picking was everything. I never wanted to stay at home, I
always wanted to be on the field. Today I only go because I
have to, I need the money. She earns between 180 and 280 euros a
month, but says her health is suffering. Since 2018, I’m
longer the same. Back then I was healthy, but
today I am plagued by headaches, my whole body hurts: the
ribs, the back, the knees. I’m in a
lot of pain. A fate she wanted
to spare her children. But in order to have
enough money to live, her husband also
works in the fields, and their 21-year-old
daughter recently started too. This is sad it's
complicated. I didn't want this. But
we don't have a choice. It's difficult. I didn't want my children there
picking oranges in the field with me. Knowing they might get bitten
by a snake or fall off the ladder. They take that
risk every day. It's terrifying. She worries that their health
will be compromised, too. Since 2018, Vitoria has
had to take daily medication for shortness of
breath and headaches. She believes it’s the pesticides in the
orange fields that have made her sick. I remember it like
it was yesterday. I felt sick on the plantation, and in
the afternoon I couldn't work anymore. I went home while my
husband continued to work. The next day I
couldn't get out of bed. My whole body
was hurting. I went to the doctor and
was on sick leave for a week. I needed money. When I asked the company
if they would reimburse me, they asked why and I said
that I had suffered poisoning. Vitoria explains how pesticides
are often sprayed near the workers. This happens in the
fields all the time, she says. Both her
former employer and the industry association
reject these accusations. This should not happen
under any circumstance. So again, what I see
here are extreme situations that are absolutely atypical
and cannot serve as a reference for common practice in
the Brazilian citrus industry. The Brazilian Ministry of
Health calculates that on average, one person dies every 2 days
in Brazil from pesticide poisoning. amount of these deaths that
can be attributed to orange farming though cannot
be estimated. But Vitoria is certain that her symptoms are
due to pesticide poisoning. In 2019, she decided
to take her case to court. A step that has not
been easy for her. These are big companies,
and they are very powerful. I wouldn't recommend
anyone to mess with them. I didn't really
want to do it. This is a very small city
and news travels fast. It can make it
hard to find work. Vitoria’s case was dropped before
evidence was even presented. But she received a small
amount of compensation. Her wish for the future
is that the workers on the plantations are
treated with respect. Trade unionist Aparecido
knows other workers who have experienced
similar problems. He would like to see the companies
regularly check their employees for pesticide
poisoning. I would like the companies
to address the problem without the need for
outside parties to intervene. But the industry won’t, so I
think workers should definitely sue and defend
themselves. It's not fair to go to
work completely healthy and end up poisoned with
pesticides in your blood. According to the
industry association, strict guidelines are
followed on when and how pesticides are
applied to the field. Farming oranges
is demanding. And completely eliminating the use of
chemicals is not currently possible, says Juliano Ayres, managing
director of Fundecitrus. The research centre was
funded by orange farmers and the juice industry in 1977 to help
make citrus farming more sustainable. The climate in subtropical areas
like Sao Paulo, Florida, Mexico, where it rains a lot, is
perfect for citrus farming and for great
productivity and quality. But unfortunately it also
favors many pests and diseases. Therefore, in certain
situations pesticides are needed. According to scientists, the huge
monocultures in orange farming also lead to more
pests and plant diseases. Which is why numerous
agrochemicals are used. According to Fundecitrus, these
do not pose any danger to workers. But the workers who
handle the pesticides often lack important expertise,
explains the prosecutor, who repeatedly carries out inspections
for the Brazilian Ministry of Labor. We encounter the following problems:
pesticides are stored incorrectly. There is often a lack of training
in the handling of these poisons. They are improperly distributed and
often without protective equipment. In addition, clothing that
has been in direct contact is not adequately
cleaned. Our investigation
takes us to Brussels, where we meet Larissa Mies Bombardi. She has been researching agrochemical
use in Brazil for 12 years. In 2017, she published her
findings in her home country. According to the
Ministry of Health, 56,000 cases of pesticide poisoning
were reported between 2010 and 2019. That's an average
of 10 per day, but the ministry calculates that for
every case reported, 50 go undetected. That means that we may have 2
million sick and poisoned people. This is a tragedy. The Brazilian industry
says oranges for juice are grown under
strict regulations. They say the pesticides used
pose no danger to the workers. But whether that is actually
the case is hard to verify. According to Bombardi, pesticide
poisoning is not always easy to prove. There are agrochemicals that
you can't detect in the blood. Other types of testing
need to be done. Often a blood
test is not enough. Health professionals are also not
always trained to detect pesticides. Many highly toxic
pesticides used in Brazil are supplied from
countries in the EU. Although some of them
are banned in the EU itself, they are still
sold to Brazil. There are 116 pesticides approved
for citrus cultivation in Brazil, and over 30 of them
are banned in the EU. Yet 10% of these banned chemicals are
sold to Brazil by companies in Europe. Fundecitrus disagrees, saying that
only pesticides approved in the EU are used in the
orange fields. According to Larissa
Mies Bombardi, the banned pesticides could cause
Parkinson's disease and be carcinogenic,
among other things. But the use of these substances
also has consequences in the EU. The pesticides that Europe sells
come back to the market: in the fruit, the juice, the
coffee, the meat. Europe is one of the biggest
consumers of Brazilian products. This is a vicious
cycle of poisoning. In 2018, the European
Food Safety Authority examined products
imported from Brazil to the EU. About 7% had pesticide residues
above the EU's approved limit. In 2019, Larissa Mies Bombardi decided
to publish her studies in Europe. As a result, Scandinavia's largest
organic products supermarket severed its trade
ties with Brazil And Bombardi
received threats. After I launched the English
version of the atlas in Europe, the intimidation
and threats started. Threatening emails, warnings from
colleagues, and a break-in at home: the more time passed, the more she
feared for herself and her two sons. In early 2021, Bombardi left
Brazil and moved to Belgium. She is now continuing
her research in Brussels. Her appeal to the
EU Commission: Ethics should come first and
foremost above economic interest. You can't sell something to others
that is forbidden in your country. The EU needs
to act ethically. Things are changing
for Germany in the future. The government is planning
to halt exports of pesticides that are not approved in the EU on the
basis of protection of human health. Similar measures are also
being discussed at the EU level. In Brazil, Fundecitrus is researching
biological pest controllers to reduce the
use of pesticides. Among other things, they
are breeding a species of wasp that feeds on
one of the pests. We produce about
100,000 tamarixia a month and release them in the orange fields
in the citrus belt of Sao Paulo. With its research, Fundecitrus
says it has already managed to cut down pesticide use by
50% compared to 20 years ago. But doing without agrochemicals
is still unthinkable in Sao Paulo. Is it possible to grow
oranges organically here? No. A plant that currently
produces 200 kilos of oranges would then only
yield 10 kilos. Most of the organic orange juice
bought in Germany comes from Mexico, where orange plantations are smaller. After the US, Germany is the biggest
market for orange juice in the world. And the demand for juices with
seals of certification is increasing. In addition to the
EU organic seal, which focuses on
ecological sustainability, seals such as Gepa Fair
Plus and the FairTrade mark guarantee high
social standards. Sustainability is a topic
that the juice industry has been reckoning
with for a long time, and it is now often a
requirement that products are produced according
to sustainable criteria. Klaus Heitlinger, from the German
Fruit Juice Industry Association, represents the companies selling
orange juice on the German market. He is aware of the accusations
that minimum labor conditions are not observed
everywhere. In order for the whole thing to
be documented in a traceable way, we decided to certify
the orange juices in cooperation with
the Brazilian suppliers. As a result, the Rainforest
Alliance certification has grown quite a
bit as of 2019/2020. Today I would say it's a basic
requirement for orange juice. Rainforest Alliance, an NGO
operating in 70 countries, awards product seals to plantations
that meet certain environmental and social criteria, such
as fair working conditions. It now certifies around half
of the juices in Germany, according to
industry estimates. In addition to seals, it is also behind initiatives
promoting better standards. The new Supply Chain Act, which
will take effect starting in 2023, will also force the industry
to comply with human rights along its
supply chain. But this applies primarily to the
direct suppliers of German companies. For the remaining
suppliers, it only applies if there are
actual indications of a violation. So at the lower end of the supply
chain, such as on plantations, where most violations occur, the Supply Chain Act
will have very little effect. Back to Brazil,
in Ubirajara. This region is where
the majority of oranges are picked for
the juice industry. Here we witness where the mechanisms
fail. We meet three women who speak openly about working for a
supplier without registration. Just like, according
to the Ministry of Labor, an estimated quarter
of all orange pickers. It's much better
not to be registered. If you're
registered, it does have the
advantage that you get a medical certificate
if you're sick. But if you are not registered,
the salary is much higher. You get
paid double. 20 cents a bag
instead of only 10. Social security, health
insurance and pension insurance, which can be important for
the future, don't matter to them. The main thing for
now is to survive. It's the only thing
we have here. There is no other
work in this region. The majority here picks oranges
because it's the only job in town. Oranges are
all we have left. And if you don't pick
oranges, you die of hunger. They know that legal regulations
are sometimes disregarded, such as mandatory breaks
from work, but they put up with it. If you are not
registered, you are free to decide
whether you take a break or not. Isn't it better to take a break
because the work is so hard? But then you work less! And
if you work less, you earn less! According to the
industry association, subcontractors
receive regular training and are required to adhere
to specific contract clauses. Hiring workers who
are not legally registered is strictly forbidden
by member companies. Much has improved on the orange
plantations in Brazil in recent years. Seals now
set standards. As a result, certified plantations
are monitored more regularly. And yet, as the prosecutor
from the Ministry of Labor witnesses
again and again, the strict rules are constantly broken
in order to produce more cheaply. This year I have done three or four
inspections in the state of São Paulo, every time our department was present,
the workers were not registered. In order for laws to be
respected, the state must act. The more visible and present it is,
the fewer violations there will be. In other words, more
state controls are needed. But these are not
in sight right now. On Brazil’s plantations, oranges
are produced for the world market. A profitable business
for the big companies. So the workers don't end up paying the
highest price for the orange juice, everyone needs to keep
a close eye on things.
