As Latin American governments plan to unite against the EU’s €230 a tonne banana import tariff, producers are at odds.
The presidents of Ecuador and Costa Rica agreed at the weekend to form a united front against the latest European Commission proposal and hope to welcome representatives from Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama to a joint meeting in Ecuador early next month.
Meanwhile, Donald Murray general manager of Del Monte in Costa Rica is reported in the Costa Rican press saying that the government’s position will have serious consequences for Costa Rica as it would maintain the "discrimination" of the existing EU banana regime’s complicated combination of licences, tariffs and quotas.
Murray suggests a single tariff for all which would not necessarily have to be the proposed €230 but which the governments should try and negotiate on. He warns that insisting on a €75 tariff access to market for Costa Rica would actually diminish and endanger smaller independent growers as market pressure would force the larger companies to reduce the volumes purchased from them.
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