Banana producers denounce unfair import competition and rising costs
The Association of Banana Producer Organizations of the Canary Islands (Asprocan) has expressed its support for the mobilizations that the Canarian agricultural sector has called for February 21 and 24. The reason is the unsustainable situation that banana producers are going through, who face wholesale prices that do not cover production costs and imports from third countries that do not meet the same requirements as European productions.
Asprocan recalls that the banana sector has been resisting the pressure of banana imports for more than 30 years, which are sold in Spain at the same prices as a decade ago, which represents an intentional blockade of the national market. Thanks to the marketing, differentiation and promotion efforts of the sector, the support of Spanish consumers and the help of institutions, the banana sector has managed to remain a key sector of activity, which last year 2023 contributed more than 365 million euros to the Canary Islands economy in fruit sales.
The banana sector asks urgent measures from the different administrations
To the European Union and the Government of Spain
The banana sector requests the community authorities and the Government of Spain to equate the production conditions of imports from third countries with those required of community production, especially with regard to the criteria of environmental sustainability, safety food and worker safety. To achieve this, it is necessary and feasible to urgently approve the appropriate community regulatory modifications so that only chemical active ingredients that have authorization for use in Europe can be applied to bananas imported from third countries.
Likewise, the banana sector demands that coherence be established between the areas of regulation of fruit marketing in the European Union and the environmental requirements of fruit production. That is to say, that the community fruit marketing standards include sustainability and environmental conditions, since the current standards only value the external appearance of the fruit and, therefore, benefit imported productions with a greater number of chemical applications in the crop.
To the Government of Spain
The banana sector demands that the Government of Spain adopt measures to avoid the abusive difference between the commercial margins that apply to the sale of national products to the public and those that apply to imported products of the same category. The objective is to avoid sales strategies without margin or at a loss that favor imports to the detriment of demand for Spanish productions.
A measure that can be made compatible with actions and regulations aimed at informing consumers about the social and environmental sustainability criteria that differentiate European productions from imports from third countries.
To the regional administration
The banana sector understands that, in line with less bureaucratization, the sector in the Canary Islands requires streamlining the processing of files and reducing bureaucratic processes that in many cases prevent access to aid for the activity and generate serious damages for producers who see themselves as such. in the impossibility of continuing.
