This summer’s saga of course revolved around the detection, for the first time on the South American continent (North-East Colombia, to be precise), of fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4. This edition of FruiTrop publishes an initial memorandum drawn up by CIRAD’s researchers on this disease and its consequences (downloadable for free in French, English and Spanish at fruitrop.com). It comes a terrible blow to the entire world banana sector. The time has come to strengthen biosecurity policies, since if there is just one lesson to take away, it is that we need to pull out all the stops to prevent the arrival of the disease. While we know how to guard against the disease, there are no solutions for getting rid of it. Another highlight of the banana news is the Abidjan Appeal (21 September 2019), which enabled ACP banana producers, mistreated for years by the EU through its commercial negotiations with the dollar banana suppliers, to make themselves heard. Providing a total of one million tonnes of bananas consumed on the European market (Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana, Dominican Republic and Belize), and counting on the very involved political support of their governments and the presence of observers from the Canaries, they sent a powerful signal to the European Commission. They called for an end to the progressive lowering of customs duty to 75 euros/tonne for the dollar banana, the implementation of an effective monitoring system on the European banana markets, and the renewal of an aid programme for the ACP industries. We are now expecting European producers to follow in their footsteps, initially at the European Parliament on 9 October. Fundamentally, the two claims are practically identical, except in terms of support for production, with the Europeans preferring a specific mechanism (POSEI). The futures of the two main procurement sources are objectively linked. Their degree of influence over the reform (or otherwise) of the organisation of the European market is one of the challenges for the months ahead. The pressure placed on European decision-makers (Member States and European institutions) will be proportional to the individual or joint actions that they decide to take. Undoubtedly, this is the final chance to put a stop to the dreadful liberal drain dating back to the 2000s, when globalisation and deregulation were inherently wonderful.
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