Forum 2009: Maximum banana world event

With an organized list of confirmed speakers and exhibitors, the Association of Ecuadorian Banana Exporters, AEBE, completed the last details so that between April 20th and 22nd of this year, the Sixth International Forum of Bananas and Fresh Fruits would take place in Guayaquil. This will bring together the banana industry at an international level to address the current global production and marketing of bananas and other fruits.

This forum has the backing of past events. It sets the scene where all principal elements that comprise the production and marketing of bananas and fresh fruit. They will meet to address issues involved in managing the technical, logistical and human aspects, where its lectures will provide an overview and economic projection for these products which are vital to the economy of producing and exporting countries.

One of the topics to be discussed will be "The international crisis and its impact on the commerce of fruits,” which will be presented by Dr. John Moverley, who is enamored with rural areas and is passionate advocate for environmental issues, with a strong commitment to living sustainability and working the ground. He was a member of the national steering group for Food and Agriculture in the year 2007/08. He is currently a member of the Royal Agricultural Society and the Institute of Agricultural Engineering.

The theme of the logistics of shipments will be handled by Mr. Adolfo Leiva, who has extensive experience in this field as well as quality system designs. His professional experience comes from working with Chiquita Brands, Banana Noboa, Caribana, Geest and since January 2008, through his consulting firm, which provides advice on quality and the environment. The analysis of the world banana market will be headed by Mr. Renato Acuña, who is currently the president of operations for Latin America for Dole Fresh and who has a vast amount of experience in the banana field.

For this forum, AEBE has included an extensive program on the shipping industry to be developed in four conferences and a forum. AEBE has done this because every day, this element of the marketing chain has an important significance, especially when large shipping companies are making decisions that will enable them to survive the competition and maintain their present margins.

Among those who will address this issue is Mr. Kriss Kristensen, who has dedicated his life to the shipping industry. He has vast experience in the topic. He has worked for APMoeller in Denmark and Maersk Line, where he held positions in Strategic Management. He is currently the Director of Reefer Sales Management.

Also present will be Mr. Richard Bright, editor of the daily Reefer Trends, one of the most important publications as per issues in world trade as shipping. Another speaker will be Mr. Antonio Aloé with experience in the work of shipments of fruit in different lines and current editor of the weekly SOPISCO NEWS.

The other issue which AEBE has an interest in is the one of corporate responsibility, where the association has been working for some time, through health plans and their associated foundations, who seek to improve the quality of life for banana workers and their families.

One of the participants in this Forum will be Francisco Hernandez Gerardo Rojas, a Costa Rican priest, who from 1999 to 2003 was Executive Secretary of the Department of the Social Pastoral of the Latin American Episcopal Council, CELAM, and since 2003, Coordinator for Latin American and the Caribbean Cáritas an international agency of the Holy Section, Vatican City, which is focused on social integration of communities to economic welfare. In this same forum, Mr. Manuel Rodriguez will participate; he has vast experience in the field of production and human resources, he currently occupies the post of Senior Vice-president of Corporate and International Relations of Chiquita Brands International.

The Ab. Eduardo Ledesma Garcia, Executive Director of AEBE, would like to express that "in the midst of an international financial crisis, it is pleasing to see how exporting firms, suppliers of goods and services as well as national and international speakers have confirmed their attendance to the Forum to expand their contacts. Likewise I would like to say for those who are registering as attendees, especially national producers, which reflect their interest in learning more, and that productivity growth is not of miracles but of efforts of this type, which AEBE has contributed over the past six years. "

Contact:
Paulina Ubillus
AEBE
pubillus@aebe.com.ec

Publication date: 4/2/2009

Australia: Banana growers fear for their future

The future of banana growing at Uralba is uncertain as brothers Ian and Warren Simpson wait to see the impact of the Federal Government’s decision to allow fruit from the Philippines to be imported into Australia.

Ian Simpson said farming was an ‘uncertain’ industry at the best of times, but this decision added another ‘thorn’ to their family business established 28 years ago, which turns over about $700,000 annually.

He said he had concerns about the standards the Filipino bananas and banana growers would have to meet.

“We have regulations to abide with. What’s their regulations? None of us seem to know,” he said.

He also said the importers will have control of the industry, and could potentially price small local growers out of business, and later jack the prices up.

Ian said many banana growers from the famous banana-growing region of Coffs Harbour region had already sold up as they couldn’t compete with the large plantations in North Queensland, which the major supermarket chains were drawn to.

Ian and Warren Simpson have been growing bananas on 18.2 hectares of Uralba hillside land since 1980.




Source: ballinaadvocate.com.au


Publication date: 4/2/2009

Uganda issues new banana disease alert

Uganda has put its national crop disease surveillance network on the alert for a possible outbreak of a new incurable banana virus.

The Director for Crop Resources in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Opolot Okasaai, said the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), is likely to strike Uganda from across Rwanda or DR-Congo, threatening the multi-million annual local banana industry.
Already Rwanda, DR Congo, Congo-Brazaville, Gabon and Hawaii have reported the problem.

Dr Okasaai said the virus has no known cure so far, and that all available banana cultivars and varieties in the country were vulnerable to the attack.

This will be a major blow to the agricultural sector following a recent Banana Bacterial Wilt Disease (BBWD) attack, which has devastated over 50 districts in the country, wiping out up to 90 per cent of farm yields and threatening household food security. Uganda has one of the highest per capita matooke (green bananas) consumption rate in the world at about 500kg.

Matooke alone occupies 38 per cent of Uganda’s arable land, accounting for food security to over 12 million Ugandans, according to the National Agricultural Research Laboratories. But in the last five years, production has sharply decreased due to numerous diseases and pest attacks.

Following the new threat, the government has sent a scientific team to Rwanda led by the head of Banana Research Programme, Dr Wilberforce Tushemereirwe, to assess the danger.

“We are also alerting all farmers and district agricultural officers, especially on the western borders to be on the look out,” Dr Okasaai said.

The BBTV virus is transmitted by insects called aphids. Unlike the BBWD, the new virus is not mechanically transmitted through using the same farm tools like pangas, which may have cut an infected crop.

Dr David Talengera, a senior banana researcher at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories in Kawanda, said the virus is known to stop the banana from flowering and producing a bunch. The leaves of the banana form a rough, bunchy-like structure pointing upwards, with no bunch forming.

He said the disease is also transmitted by planting materials when a parent stock produces a sucker that is transferred across distances for planting. “We are discouraging this. We intend to develop guidelines on handling this disease,” Dr Talengera said.

Scientists have also developed national banana virus index to address multi-disciplinary interventions. The viruses that have been identified as pathogens in banana (Musa spp.) are abaca mosaic potyvirus (AbMV), banana bract mosaic potyvirus (BBMV), banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), and banana streak badnavirus (BSV).

Of these five viruses, BSV is reported to be the major virus problem affecting banana production in Uganda. The other four cause yield losses of considerable economic importance in various banana cultivars.

Banana production has in the last five years declined significantly, mainly due to pests and diseases attacks. Prof. Mateete Bekunda, a soils scholar at Makerere University said the increament in tempereatures had made most parts of the country’s soils barren, and habitable to numerous pests and parasites.

Uganda’s temperatures have increased by between 0.2 and 0.3 degrees centigrade in the last 50 years, giving rise to various crops and animals diseases, according to Prof. David Kabaasa, the Head of Veterinary Medicine at Makerere University.

He said more crops and animals pests were likely to occur. On average, many small-scale farmers in Uganda produce about 800kg of grain especially beans and maize per hectare as a result of poor soils compared to 10 tonnes in other parts of the world with chemical fertiliser use.


Source: monitor.co.ug

Publication date: 3/31/2009

Situation on Banana international market in March

Prices remain highly buoyant. The supply has continued to be well below normal levels.
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African Banana Producers Welcome the Positions Taken by the African Union and by the Côte d’Ivoire Minister of Agriculture

Faced with the ceaseless attacks from the Latin-American countries against the preference granted to the ACP banana exporting countries in Europe, the Cameroonian and Côte d’Ivoire producers (ASSOBACAM and OCAB) welcome the positions defended by the African Union at the recent Trade Ministers conference in Addis Ababa (16-20 March 2009) and by the Côte d’Ivoire Minister of Agriculture in his letter of 19 March 2009 to the President of the European Commission.

The African producers, following the example of their colleagues from the Caribbean and their respective States:

- Denounce the overly generous terms of the proposal for a banana tariff cut made recently to the Latin-Americans, which goes well beyond that which was required by the conclusions of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body’s Appeal Judges.

- Are indignant at the European Commission’s manoeuvring for the purpose of extracting itself from the banana file at minimum expense in favour of its interests in the bilateral negotiations in progress with the Latin-American countries, despite the fact that the ACP States had been promised tripartite negotiations.

- Maintain that the ACP States’ proposal made in Geneva on 25 July (cut to €150 per ton in 2009, namely a fall of 15% then further cuts in 2014) remains the only formula allowing the ACP States to continue to export while ensuring MFN producers even wider development within the European market.

- Demand the full and entire integration of a possible banana agreement in the Agriculture Modalities of the Doha Development Round.

- Insist that there is simultaneity between the agreements signed with the Latin- American Countries, the USA and the ACP States,

- Encourage the ACP States to obtain from the European Union a genuine ACP Banana Plan endowed with a sufficient financial allocation for adapting the conditions of ACP production to the successive tariff cuts in order to compensate for their effects.

Accompanying Documents:
Declaration of Addis Ababa on the negotiations with the WTO (Banana Point)
Letter from the Ivory Coast Minister of Agriculture

Contact:
Mr. Anatole EBANDA ALIMA
ASSOBACAM,
Telephone: + 33 1 46 86 10 09 / +33 6 71 81 26 79
E-mail : banacam.assobacam@wanadoo.fr banacam.assobacam@wanadoo.fr

Mr. Mathias N’GOAN
OCAB
Telephone: +33.146.863.576 / Mobile: +33.608.860.079
E-mail : ocab@wanadoo.fr

Remarks for the Press Managers:
ASSOBACAM is Cameroon’s Banana Producers’ Association
OCAB is the Central Organisation of the Côte d’Ivoire Banana and Pineapple exporters-producers.

Publication date: 3/31/2009