Will Africans back Caribbean banana producers?

Caribbean banana exporting countries have found themselves in an almost impossible predicament – convincing African banana producing countries to have a united position with the Caribbean when they meet with officials of the European Union (EU) next month.{{more}}

Minister of Agriculture Montgomery Daniel who recently returned from a May 8, meeting of Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) in Belize said that he chaired what was a crucial meeting for the banana industry.

He said that the meeting sought to address the issue of coming to a common position among the CARIFORUM countries as they approach their EU meeting concerning the new banana regime.

The CARIFORUM countries, who all have high per-tonne production costs compared to their African counterparts, are going into the meeting with a significant disadvantage. The EU Nations being forced by World Trade Organization (WTO) rulings to discontinue the favourable treatment given to Caribbean bananas.

CARIFORUM countries produce bananas at an average rate of US$518 per tonne with the Windward Island being the worst at US$702 per tonne, while the Dominican Republic boasts the best average of US$380 per tonne.

African banana producing countries like Cameroon have a much better per tonne production rate of about US$285 per tonne. With their wide expanses of flat lands and cheap labour they are better equipped to survive in the hostile environment of banana free trade than their Caribbean counterparts.

They can hold their own to some extent, yet not totally with the powerful and aggressive Most Favoured Nations (MFN): the Latin American countries of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama.

“We want to have the tariff remain, as high as possible. It is important that we see a managed market so that we could be part of that market,” Minister Daniel said of the Caribbean banana producing countries.

The CARIFORUM countries are hoping that the tariff does not dip any lower than the present 176 Euro per tonne while securing a minimum duty free quota of approximately 500,000 tonnes in the new Economic Partnership Agreements to be initiated.

This figure was arrived at using the production figures from the best production year of the CARIFORUM countries over the last five years, to which was added a 15 per cent mark up for potential growth.

CARIFORUM countries, which enjoy a quota of over 700,000 tonnes presently, are aware that the MFN countries will be pushing for a decrease. So while they are hoping that the quota will remain or increase, the figure arrived at will provide a base for the negotiations.

The African countries are unlikely to agree with this position and the MFN countries almost certainly will not, and many experts believe that these negotiations are just stalling the inevitable demise of the industry, following on the heels of other agricultural industries in the region.