Brussels, 26/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Banana for Development Coalition is calling on the EU to support its ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) partner banana producers as it is alarmed that ACP bananas, which drive development for ACP producer countries, are being threatened with competition from Chiquita bananas.
The Banana for Development Coalition launched its call at an exchange of views in Brussels on 20 November between the coalition (comprising banana producers from the ACP countries) and ambassadors from the ACP group. The exchange of views was on the future of the banana industry and its added value towards development objectives.
Until 2000, ACP bananas benefitted from preferential duty-free access to the European market under the Cotonou Agreement. Since then this preferential access has been eroded considerably by tariff reductions granted to producers from Central America and from Andean Pact countries.
Although banana production has great potential to help economic and social progress, the participants regret that the EU is withdrawing its support to producers from the ACP countries to the benefit of their competitors from Latin America. The ACP producers therefore call on their European partners to support the banana industry in the ACP region.
More precisely, the coalition calls on the European Commission to: - maintain stability in the tariff regime for the future, and prevent any tariff reduction below €75 per tonne for Latin American countries; - adopt a new set of measures in favour of ACP producers so as to ensure the development of this industry in the region; - conduct a holistic study in the next three to five months so as to ensure an efficient allocation of funds; - set up the right conditions to enable traditional producers to export their knowledge and expertise to non-banana producing countries, including by facilitating regional trade and encouraging public-private partnerships.
The ACP representatives and producers signed a memorandum of understanding showing that the banana industry has created 90,000 direct jobs, supports 900,000 people directly and double that number indirectly - key assets for reducing the abandonment of land and migration. The memorandum of understanding calls for banana production to be considered of prime importance in the discussions on the global development goals. It was presented to the European Parliament at a discussion between MEPs, the ambassador of Cameroon Daniel Eva Abe and ACP banana producers. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)