John Myers Jr., Farmers Weekly Coordinator

Recognising that Jamaica will not be able to compete effectively with low-cost Latin American banana producers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands is moving to position the island as a 'fair trade' banana producer.

Achieving 'fair trade' status would mean that bananas from Jamaica are produced under fair international labour standards and conditions that promote good social and environmental practices.

According to Mr. Clarke, "If we can have the necessary certification that we are producing our banana under these conditions, then consumers in the EU are willing to pay a premium price."

He explained that a part of the premium price received would be tied to the development of social and community projects to improve the living conditions of people who work and live in and around the banana-growing areas. The size of the 'fair trade' market in the EU is estimated at between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes annually.

Gov't input required

However, in order to get farmers to meet the necessary standards, Mr. Clarke said it would require substantial input from the Government.

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands with the assistance of the European Union is taking deliberate steps to assist our farmers with training, capacity building and infrastructure to attain EUREPGAP compliance to allow them to export into the fair trading niche market in the United Kingdom," the Agriculture Minister outlined in his post-Budget presentation to Parliament two weeks ago.

He noted that $76 million has so far been spent in this regard and a further $80 million under the European Union Banana Support Programme will be expended to continue with assisting farmers to get qualified.

"We are doing this because we see this as a niche in which we can hold our own. This is the formula for the banana industry," Mr. Clarke stressed.

Under increasing threat

In recent years, the banana industries in Jamaica and other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) banana-producing countries have been coming under increasing threat as a result of the Latin Americans who have been lobbying the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to force the EU to end the preferential trade arrangement with the group.

The action by the Latin Americans forced the EU to reduce the tariff levied against banana imports from non-ACP countries from ?€230 to ?€176. The Latin Americans have since mounted another lobby for the tariff to be reduced even further as they claim the current ?€176 was still unfair. That claim is still being considered by the WTO.

Latin American producers export over 1.5 million tonnes of bananas into the EU annually while ACP producers export less than 500,000 tonnes into the same market each year. Last year Jamaica exported about 30,000 tonnes of bananas into the EU.