WHITE PAPER

In 2021, Afruibana presented its White Paper entitled “Bananas at the heart of African rural development – a common challenge for Africa and Europe”.

This White Paper reviews the current state of the sector and the market and competition faced by African producers, and then proposes a set of solutions to successfully transform the sector and give it the means to be resilient and sustainable in the next decade.

Indeed, the tariff cuts granted to Latin American bananas, successively through the World Trade Organization (Geneva Agreement of 2009) and then through the EU’s bilateral agreements with South and Central American countries, have significantly reduced the customs preferences of ACP producers. While progress has been made thanks to European flanking measures, African producers continue to show a competitive gap with their Latin American competitors, notably because of the exceptional size and productivity of farms across the Atlantic.

This situation has led to a major growth in the volumes exported by Latin American producers to Europe. However, despite the diversification process undertaken, given the historical and geographical links, the EU remains the main international destination for African bananas. This abundance of Latin American fruit at very low prices destabilizes the market, allows for a significant increase in Latin American market share in Europe and seriously threatens African producers.

To overcome these increasingly adverse trade conditions and emerge from this situation “from above”, it is necessary to rethink the data of the problem and invest in the key areas that will determine the future of the sector and its social model:

• The training and development of skills of women and men in the fruit industry
• Integration of the cost structure, a vector of savings through the development of companies and solutions with higher added value in Africa
• Continuous improvement of cultivation practices and sustainable optimization of yields
• Continuous optimization and decarbonization of the entire value chain, from farm to fork
• Wider communication of the quality and values embodied by the African banana

Discover this state of play and Afruibana’s analysis and suggestions to create an ambitious partnership with Europe: