ABIDJAN APPEAL

In September 2019, at the initiative of Afruibana, ACP banana producers solemnly launched the Abidjan Appeal to European authorities and international institutions. The ceremony took place at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Abdidjan in the presence of the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, the Cameroonian Minister of Trade, Mr. Luc Magloire Mbarga, as well as several ambassadors of African, Caribbean and European countries and representatives of international institutions.

For three days, delegations of banana producers from several ACP countries – Assobacam (Cameroon), OBAM-CI and OCAB (Côte d’Ivoire), Adobanano (Dominican Republic), BPA (Ghana) – and several invited European countries, including ASPROCAN (Canary Islands) and the Madeira Banana Producers Association, met in Abidjan to work together to promote a sustainable and responsible banana sector and to defend their common interests on the European market. The delegations were able to take advantage of the interventions of experts from the African Development Bank and CIRAD and visit the Grand-Fleuve banana plantation as well as the fruit terminal in Abidjan.

At the end of this seminar, ACP banana producers launched the Abidjan Appeal with three main demands

1. That the European Union confirms its commitment not to lower the tariffs applied to Andean and Central American countries below 75€/tonne and to maintain this commitment by not proceeding with tariff dismantling.
2. To establish a regulatory mechanism that will replace the stabilization mechanism provided for in the agreements with Central and Andean America, which is coming to an end and has not been applied in practice. A mechanism could be designed after consultation with stakeholders, including new, more transparent evaluation criteria and effective intervention measures.
3. The establishment of a new support program that responds on the one hand to specific national strategies and on the other hand to the current global strategy of the ACP countries to facilitate and support their access to private investment for the development of local production capacities.