The European Union has divided opinion among banana producers and traders with its e176 a tonne tariff-only banana import regime.
The new regime will come in to force a month’s time and has drawn support from Fresh Del Monte Produce but criticism from Fyffes and Chiquita.
“Fyffes regrets this decision believing it is not in the best interests of the industry,” the company said in a statement. “The higher level of tariff will impose an additional e315 million duty burden on the European banana trade each year and will increase Fyffes’s duty costs by around e40m a year.”
But Del Monte believes justice has been served.
“We have always maintained that the tariff-only system is the only system that will correct the injustice suffered for years by Fresh Del Monte as well as other supplying companies under the current quota and licenses system,” said Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, Fresh Del Monte's chairman and chief executive.
Chiquita Brands International is disappointed with the move. “Chiquita regrets that the European Commission has advanced a tariff proposal that will be bad for banana producers and will introduce a number of clear World Trade Organization violations that have previously been condemned,” said Fernando Aguirre, chairman and chief executive officer.
Ecuador - the world’s largest banana supplier - has said that it will now mount a campaign at the Hong Kong WTO talks scheduled for Dec 13-18 to negotiate a lower figure.
The Costa Rican banana producers’ association Corbana has welcomed re removal of licences but still describes the new tariff as “unacceptable and discriminatory,” trade minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz.
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