growers certified by the scheme were exploiting their labour force, using illegal agrochemicals, and concealing hundreds of undocumented workers from auditors. The Rainforest Alliance said all its certified plantations were required to comply with strict audits and inspections; but the report quoted the president of Fecon, a Costa Rican environmental group, as saying that audits were insufficiently rigorous to reveal violations. Latin American banana growers The development and publication of the 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard caused concern among several Latin American banana producer and exporter associations. The associations, which partner with the Rainforest Alliance and share its ambitions and sustainable objectives, challenged the new standards and the Rainforest Alliance's decision-making process in an open letter to the organization on July 17, 2020. In the letter, banana associations from Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Guatemala requested that the Rainforest Alliance explain the process of socialization to the new standard and expressed their concerns, considering that only 2 percent of their demands had been taken into account. On July 23, 2020, the Rainforest Alliance responded by holding a meeting with several of the banana associations to exchange perspectives on the new standard. As Juan José Pons, coordinator of Ecuador's banana cluster, stated: the standard “does not take into account the immense effort and related costs that we have made in the recent years, both in social and environmental matters. Our investment is not reflected in the final price, it has had no return, quite the contrary, European supermarkets always impose lower and lower prices.” During the meeting, the banana associations questioned why the new standard does not address the region's economic challenges, which have been exacerbated in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Sigatoka pest. In an El Universo article, José Antonio Hidalgo, executive director of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador, stated that the banana associations needed “to reach an agreement with [the Rainforest Alliance] or we will have to look for alternatives.” For these producers and exporters, obtaining Rainforest Alliance certification is essential to keep the doors to the European Union market open, where more than 65 percent of their banana exports are directed. In response to the banana associations' ongoing concerns, the Rainforest Alliance organized a series of roundtables through December 2020 to discuss the new standard with representatives from the banana sector. However, as of November 2020, banana associations continued to disagree with the new standard's