Representatives from all the major banana-exporting countries in Latin America want to take further action against the EU over its banana-import regime as sendings rise and prices fall, and winners and losers become apparent.
Delegates gathered for a summit in Honduras last week and concurred that further legal action against the union over the tariff of €176 a tonne is necessary in order for it to be lowered.
Honduras’s trade minister Elizabeth Azcona revealed that her country has not exported any fruit to the EU at all this year. The country has seen sendings to the union decline from a high of 10 per cent of total Latin American banana exports in 1993 to 2.3 per cent last year and so far this year 0 per cent. “Honduras is ready to defend its rights before the WTO,” she warned. The regime has affected the livelihoods of 12,000 people in the Central American state.
Sendings from Panama fell by two per cent for the first two months of the year, while the world’s largest exporter Ecuador clocked up a 12 per cent rise in sendings.
Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and the US were all present at last week’s summit when it was reported that overall Latin American sendings to the EU have increased by some seven per cent while prices have decreased y 10 per cent since the regime came into force on January 1. Specifically, prices for Latin American fruit fell by eight per cent on a year ago, while those for ACP fruit fell by 20 per cent.
