Latest news Hurricane Dean has devastated the Caribbean banana industry. In the Windward Islands it is estimated that 60-65% of the banana crop on St. Lucia has been destroyed and 90-100% on Dominica. The small family farmers affected will not have incomes until their crops grow back in around six months time. WINFA, the Caribbean Farmers Association, is working in solidarity with farmers to help restructure the industry. Click here to read the latest press releases from WINFA and the Faitrade Foundation and to make a donation to support the work of WINFA in response to this disaster.

The crazy logic of 21st century economics, whereby politicians and big money wield their influence over what bananas we eat, has caught up with Britain's favourite fruit: the EU finally agreed to reform its controversial banana import regime.

The governments of the European Union - including the British government - have abolished the quotas which until recently enabled Caribbean bananas to compete with their cheaper cousins from Latin America. Following one of the bitterest trade disputes at the World Trade Organisation in the 1990s, the EU committed to replacing quotas with a tariff in 2006. It is this decision which now threatens the very survival of the banana industry on which several Caribbean islands depend - St Vincent, Dominica, St Lucia and, to a lesser extent, Jamaica.

Bananas grown in the Windward Islands tend to be much more sustainably produced than on the huge corporate owned plantations of Latin America and West Africa. These plantations use some of the highest levels of agrochemicals in the world (second only to the cotton industry). However, the lower input system of production means that Caribbean growers – who do not externalise their costs of production by  wholesale destruction of their environment and exploitation of workers  –
produce less than half the quantity of bananas per hectare compared to the big banana companies.

Since the introduction of the EU banana import regime in 1993, when the two systems first came into direct competition with each other, some  15,000 small-scale family farms in the Windward Islands have been squeezed out of the industry, unable to compete on the international market. A so-called “race to the bottom” is being pursued throughout the industry as companies relocate in search of ever cheaper bananas – driving down social and environmental standards. Here in the UK bananas have been the subject of a bitter price war between the supermarkets. Prices have been slashed as the big four British supermarkets have competed to sell cheaper and cheaper bananas at the expense of growers throughout the banana producing world. Latin American banana workers have seen their wages fall and conditions worsen as producers receive less and less from the supermarkets.

Tens of thousands of plantation workers in countries like Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama are also set to lose their livelihoods following the changes to EU policy announced at the end of 2005. These workers allied with the Caribbean farmers in the fight to oppose changes to the European banana import regime because they believed it threatened any hope of achieving a sustainable international banana trade. Their voice has been added to the voices of Caribbean farmers who have already had their livelihoods undermined by the changes in trade policy.

From 1st January 2006, the quotas controlling volumes of "third country" (almost exclusively Latin American) bananas coming into the EU-25 have been eliminated. Import licences have been removed and importers are now only required to pay a 176 euro/tonne** tariff plus a small guarantee of 15 euros/tonne. The EU, under the British Presidency, agreed to retain a duty-free quota of 775,000 tonnes per annum for bananas from Africa and the Caribbean, although this may not be for much longer. Until March 2006, import licences for ACP bananas were still issued according to historical trading patterns. From that date however, 60% of the licences are being issued according to the principle of "first-come-first-served". This proportion is set to rise to 100% over an unspecified period (although many think it will be by the beginning of 2008).

** This tariff on dollar bananas is not enough to make up for the price difference between Caribbean and Latin American bananas

FOR FURTHER COMMENT:
Please click 'EU bites the liberalisation bullet ' to read an excerpt from the editorial of the Banana Trade News Bulletin No. 34/5 which analyses the impact of the EU's decision. This double issue of the Bulletin includes a feature reflecting on history of regime negotiations. To subscribe to the Banana Trade News Bulletin by email or post - in English or Spanish - or for further information and comment please email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

FURTHER READING:

'Bananas: what future' Edwin Laurent, former Special Envoy of the islands of Dominica, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines to the European Union for Bananas (2005). Available from Banana Link. Read his statement about the impact of regime change in the islands.

'European Trade Rules and the Threat to Caribbean Bananas' Fairtrade Foundation (2005)

The ACP countries and the EU are currently engaged in the process of negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). These will aim to replace the Cotonou Agreement when the current WTO Waiver, which legitimises this trade agreement, expires in December 2007.

If the banana trade in the Windward Islands is allowed to die, along with it will go the efforts of family farmers over the last few years to secure their livelihoods through fair trade. Nearly 90% of bananas from the Windwards now carry the FAIRTRADE Mark guaranteeing they have been traded at a price which ensures the grower can make a decent living, pay their workers properly and make a contribution to their local community. It is thanks to the support of British consumers that small farmers in the Caribbean have been able to build this major fair trade initiative from nothing in the last seven years.

In the run-up to the proposed changes to the regime, Banana Link campaigned with Caribbean community groups, the Fairtrade Foundation, CAFOD, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and shopworkers' union Usdaw, to Support Caribbean Bananas. At the time Renwick Rose, Coordinator of WINFA (the Association of Caribbean Farmers) commented that "this is our last chance to save the life-blood of our islands." Rose concluded: "The so-called 'tariff only' banana import policy would be the straw that breaks the camel's back.”

The new import regime has been introduced, but the fight for a guaranteed future for small Caribbean farmers continues!! The banana farmers of the Windward Islands are now planning to convert ALL production to be Fairtrade certified. At the moment nearly 90% of bananas imported from the islands to the UK carry the FAIRTRADE Mark which means that more than 3,500 farmers, together with their families and their communities, already benefit from belonging to the Fairtrade system. WINFA and the farmers they represent believe that Fairtrade and the support of British consumers for Caribbean bananas is their only hope for survival.

To SUPPORT CARIBBEAN BANANAS:
CHOOSE CARIBBEAN AND FAIRTRADE LABELLED BANANAS

Sainsbury's converted 100% of their banana supplies to Fairtrade this summer and has made a commitment to source at least 40% of these from small farmer associations (mainly in the Windward Islands and Dominican Republic). Waitrose has followed suit in promising to convert banana supplies to Fairtrade.

Ask the other supermarkets listed below (either by filling in a customer comments card or by writing to the email/postal addresses) to always offer you the choice of Caribbean and Fairtrade bananas and to make a public commitment to trading Windward Island bananas in the long term.

IF FARMERS AND CONSUMERS CAN GET SUPERMARKETS TO MAKE THIS COMMITMENT, THEN CARIBBEAN BANANAS HAVE A FUTURE

Email:
Tesco: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
M&S: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
ASDA: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
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Mail:
Morrison: Customer Service Department
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc.
Parry Lane
Bradford BD4 8TD

For more information about Fairtrade bananas please visit the Fairtrade section of our site and The Fairtrade Foundation.

For latest news and further information please also visit Banana Link.