Freshfel Europe has praised the decision of the EU Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets to abolish the bloc's banana import license system.
According to the European fresh produce association, it has advocated the repeal of banana import licenses for several months, describing the monitoring tool as 'redundant' and 'unnecessarily burdensome' for operators after the move of the import regime to a tariff-only system.
The decision to eliminate the banana import license system will come into force on 1 January 2012, something that awaits publication in the EU Official Journal in coming weeks, Freshfel said.
Some 4.8m tonnes of bananas originating from third countries are imported into the EU on an annual basis, and while ACP-grown bananas have not required an import license since total market liberalisation in 2008, other supplying countries have been, until now, requested to lodge import licenses when bringing bananas into free circulation in the EU.
'The banana import licenses have currently only had a purely monitoring role, are administratively burdensome and costly for operators (eg capital requirements of €10m at EU level and associated collateral costs),' said Philippe Binard, general delegate at Freshfel Europe.
'Moreover, they have no added value as previous preferential quota no longer exist and reliable information on volumes of banana imports can be gathered today through existing EU databases like Eurostat,' he added 'Therefore, Freshfel highly welcomes this step which will bring benefits to EU banana importers as well as national administrations.'
