PANAMANIAN WOMAN HELPS HARVEST BANANAS AT A FARM IN PANAMA, 2002-10-10 (photo)

Ida Albina, a worker at Pumsa banana export factory in Puerto Armel, on Panama's Pacific coast, washes bananas for packing on October 10, 2002. The bananas will be shipped to Europe by Germany's Golden B banana company. After 100 years in Panama, Chiquita, which is the main exporter of Panama's banana, is considering closing its Pacific operations in December, after a loss of $90 million in the past five years at the division. Rising production costs, militant labor unions and the effects of European Union import tariffs in the 1990s mean Panama's banana industry is now among the least competitive in Latin America, United States-based Chiquita says. REUTERS/Alberto Lowe AL/GN