Brussels Banana Conference Clamours For Higher Prices

By Francis Tim Mbom

Participants at the Second International Banana Conference which held recently in Brussels, Belgium, came out with far reaching proposals aimed at increasing the prices of bananas in the world market.    

CPN Vewessee, President of the Fako Agricultural Workers' Union, FAWU, and trade unionist, represented Cameroon’s banana workers.
The Managing Director of the Tiko Banana Project/Del Monte, Johnson Teke Ndoumbe, represented the producers at the conference.    
Talking to The Post after his return from Brussels on May 12, Vewessee said the conference was organised by Europe based Banana NGO, EUROBAN.   

He said members of the NGO who represent the interest of the workers have come to realise that the continuous price drop of the crop was adversely affecting the lives of banana plantation workers who are predominantly found in the poor parts of the world like South America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.    

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A release from the conference stated that the "structural over production in the international market, coupled with the accelerated search for cheap bananas by big retailers, is creating a permanent crisis for the workers, producers and the marketing companies."    
The release added that, "the downward spiral in buying prices has been passed on to the men and women working in the plantations, and to small producers as well."   

The release concluded; "women farmers and workers have been particularly affected," by this trend. 
As to how the fight to scale up the prices can be achieved, Vewessee said they proposed the formation of cartels by the producer nations so that in times of over production, which may result in price dives, they could come together and jointly agree on cutting down production and consequently forcing up the prices.

He said forming a cartel like OPEC, was seen as one of the best therapeutic measures that would arrest the persistent price dives.  Besides, Vewessee said the Brussels meeting was equally to examine the European Union, EU, tariff regime system.   

The EU has been clamouring for the liberalisation of the banana market by 2006. As a way of giving free access to its market by all exporters, it had proposed the introduction of tariffs to be paid by banana exporters. Initially, banana exporters traded in the EU market on the basis of a quota system.    

Vewessee said the participants asked for a two-year moratorium, where the tariff system would be further scrutinised to see how it could affect producer nations, especially the small producers.   
  On the contrary, he said, the participants proposed the introduction of different tariffs for the different producing regions.   

Vewessee said this proposal was based on the fact that small producers like those of the Caribbean Islands were going to be negatively affected by a unique tariff system. He said they would not be able to meet up, given that banana production is  costly and the European market is very stringent on quality. Any further hike in tarrifs would jostle the Carribeans out of the banana business.    

Vewessee also said they discussed the need for the respect of trade union rights in the various producing countries. He said it was agreed that the rights of workers should be respected for them to bargain collectively for decent wages and safer working conditions.    

Taking the case of Cameroon, Vewessee said the workers of Del Monte Banana in Tiko via their Union, cannot discuss their working conditions with the authorities of Del Monte, instead it is with the CDC management that they always bargain.    

Citing the case of Del Monte again, he said there are workers who leave their houses as early as 4:00 a.m and only return at say 7:00 p.m, almost on a daily basis. But at the end of the day, the said worker is given a pittance, which is not enough to keep him or her going for a day.      

"Unions should be able to negotiate directly with multi-national banana companies and not with local companies who front for them," said Vewessee. 
The participants resolved that banana buyers should desist from buying from any producer who fails to respect the rights of the workers to a decent life as well as protect the environment where the crops are farmed.   

Among the world's highest banana exporting nations like Equador, Brazil, Ivory Coast and others, Cameroon is ranked tenth and commands a slim margin of 0.24 percent of the world's banana market.