Almost one in four bananas traded in the European Union last year came from Ecuador, and the South American country is set to improve its position through a trade agreement aimed at further cutting tariffs by €39 (US$52) more per metric ton (MT) than previous schedules for 2020.

With all other factors held constant, this would equate to €51.5 million (US$69 million) in savings based on last year's volume.

As a result, Europe Union growers - the majority from the community's outermost regions of the Canary Islands (Spain), Martinique (France), Guadeloupe (France) and the Azores (Portugal) - have raised the alarm about how they'll be be able to stay afloat amid heightened competition.

The European Union Association of Banana Producers (APEB) is set to hold a general assembly today (July 29) in Madrid to discuss how they'll guarantee a viable future for the industry, given the repercussions that "in all likelihood" will occur once Ecuador has better trading conditions, news afency EFE reported.

The story reported the growers believed the only way to counteract the effect of the EU-Ecuador agreement, as well as EU trading agreements with other banana-growing countries like Colombia and Peru, would be to increase the amount of subsidies available to support the sector.

The EU's Program of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity ('Programme d'Options Spécifiques à l'Éloignement et l'Insularité' in French, commonly known as POSEI) currently offers €280 million (US$376 million) per year for banana crop development in Europe, of which €141.1 million (US$189.6 million) is set aside for growers in the Canary Islands.

In this year's budget however, Spain's financial support for Canary Islands growers under the scheme fell well short of this potential amount at under US$100 million.

On Wednesday, grower representatives plan to meet with Spain's Agriculture Minister, Isabel García Tejerin, Minister for European Affairs, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo and Secretary of State for Trade, Jaime García-Legaz, to discuss the matter further.

The story reported the association will be calling on the governments of France, Spain and Portugal to analyze recent trade agreements with Latin American countries, and to take necessary measures to ensure their respective banana industries maintain production and profitability.

Ecuador's banana exports to the EU in 2013 were more than double the amount produced by the community, but banana local growers still accounted for 11% of supply.

Spain produced 360,981 metric tons (MT) making it the fourth-largest supplier to the EU behind Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, nudging in ahead of the Dominican Republic by just under 40,000MT.

After the Dominican Republic, the largest banana suppliers to the EU were Cote d Ivoire (252,175MT), Cameroon (249,239MT), France (230,526MT), Panama (197,088MT) and Peru (143,489MT).

France's production was split between Martinique (159,015MT) and Guadeloupe (71,511MT), while Portugal produced 15,775MT.

Cyprus and Greece also accounted for small portions of the EU banana crop.

Related stories: Ecuadorian banana group reveals likely tariff reduction structure

Ecuador-EU trade agreement is "marvelous", says banana industry leader

Photo: Siwaporn999, via Fotolia

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