Eugene’s crops were ripped from the soil by government contractors and he has been forced from his own land to make way for a free-trade zone that will house factories for brands including Levi’s, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger.

“This is a crime against humanity,” said Eugene, 43, whose elderly father was chased away by armed police when he tried to get back onto their plot to pick mangoes. “While these big companies are getting rich, we will be struggling to feed ourselves.”

Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic is one of the country’s most fertile regions. It can produce enough food for half a million people. But under a scheme funded by the World Bank a trading park will be created there with about 40 factories along the 140-mile border. The goods will be exported free of taxes and tariffs.

Grupo M, a textile company that will operate one of the factories, said it would provide workers with housing, a day-care centre and a clinic. The first phase will mean the eviction of 54 farmers, including Eugene. Hundreds of farmworkers will also lose their jobs. The company says it will generate up to 4,500 new jobs.

“There has been a lot of discussion about the social and environmental aspects and we have offered to move farmers to new land,” said a company spokesman.

Eugene claims the bulldozer teams that seized his fields in March came unannounced and says nobody has offered him new land. The government offered £400 in compensation, he added, compared with a profit of £1,300 he expected from his crops.

The British government will push for a fresh agreement on foreign investment in countries such as Haiti at a World Trade Organisation summit in Mexico in September. It says the deal will protect the vulnerable.

ActionAid, the development agency, warns the agreement will make it easier for big corporations to expand their wealth at the expense at some of the world’s poorest people. “While foreign investment can combat poverty, it can only bring benefit if carefully managed,” said John Hilary, a trade analyst for ActionAid.

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