The European Association of Banana Producers (APEB) has accused the Spanish government of being prepared to back Latin American imports to the detriment, and possible extinction, of the Canary Islands’ banana sector.
In a statement, APEB accused the Spanish authorities, alongside the European Union, of offering to reduce the current banana import tariff for Colombian fruit to €75 per tonne.
The association claimed that under the offer, over an as-yet-unspecified timescale, the Andean country could send up to 1.3m tonnes of bananas each year to the EU, with the agreement likely to be offered by extension to other Latin American countries.
“The Spanish government has known about this offer for months, but has not even deigned to inform the Canaries banana sector,” claimed APEB.
The group claimed that the Spanish government was in favour of the EU reaching agreements of association with Latin American banana exporting nations, which it said were due to be signed in May this year in Madrid.
APEB told Spanish news agency EFE that Spain was poised to become “the great protector and defender” of the Latin American countries in Europe, “at the cost of 10,300 Canarian banana growers and their 9,500ha of production”.
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