AU: Company designs banana harvester

An Australian company says it's developed a mechanical banana harvester which could revolutionise the industry.

Bananas are one of the more labour intensive crops to harvest, with the fruit easily damaged if not handled with care.

Papyrus Australia is working on developing paper from banana plants, and now the company's Grant Pigot says it's created a harvester which can collect both the fruit and the fibrous trunk.

"Ultimately, this technology can be used to harvest banana fruit, in a very cost-effective way and ultimately meet the aim of the banana farmer, which is to bring their fruit back to the packing shed as quickly as possible and as cheaply as they can, and without any damage to the fruit itself," he says.


Source: abc.net.au

Publication date: 5/11/2009

Colombian banana workers strike over pay

Colombian banana farm workers in the country's key growing region went on strike over pay and benefits on Friday, threatening hundreds of thousands of boxes exported a day, union leaders and producers said.

Around 17,000 banana plantation workers joined the strike in the world's No. 3 exporter of the fruit and the protest has paralyzed around 234,000 18-kg boxes a day of exports, said Guillermo Rivera, president of the Sintrainagro farm union.

Colombia's Uraba region, the country's banana-growing heartland, usually ships approximately 350,000 boxes of bananas a day mainly to the clients in the United States and Europe, according to producers.

"The situation is worrying for producers and commercial companies as it affects exports to overseas markets and means contracts go unfulfilled," a commission representing banana growers said in a statement.


Source: forexpros.com

Publication date: 5/11/2009

ACP countries slam proposed changes to EU Banana Tariffs

African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have spoken out against proposed changes to the EU’s banana tariff regime, which they say would harm their exporters.

”We are very disappointed by our partner the European Commission because they are sacrificing development to trade liberalisation,” said Gerhard Siwat, the Surinamese ambassador.

”We quite often have the feeling that the European Commission does not understand what partnership means,” he told a press conference in Brussels on 6 April.

EU banana import policies have been the subject of a decade-long row at the WTO, pitting Brussels against several Latin American banana producers and the US. At issue is the EU’s current import regime: a 176 euros/tonne tariff on bananas from most-favoured nation (MFN) suppliers, alongside a 775,000 tonne duty-free import quota reserved for ACP states, many of which are former European colonies.

Latin American countries have long insisted that this import regime illegally discriminates in favour of bananas from ACP countries and violates WTO rules on quantitative restrictions. The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body has supported such claims, and Brussels is now under pressure to revise its policies.

To that end, the EU proposed in February to lower the current tariffs of 176 euros per tonne to 114 euros per tonne by 2019. That offer marked a slight shift from a tentative deal that was tabled last summer, in which the EU committed to reaching the 114 euro mark three years earlier, in 2016. But that deal fell through when high-level trade talks collapsed in Geneva at the end of July.

The new proposal is based on the same approach, except that the tariff, after an initial decline, would be frozen at 136 euros per tonne from 2011 to 2014. Gradual reductions would then resume until 2019.

In exchange for such tariff reductions, the EU has reportedly called on the several Latin American countries that have challenged the bloc’s banana tariffs at the WTO to abandon those disputes. But Ecuador, which has led the charge against the EU’s current tariff regime, has already rejected that request. “There is no way we will drop the complaints,” Fander Falconi, Ecuador’s foreign minister, said last week.

ACP countries are also unsatisfied with the proposal. Siwat of Suriname claimed that, according to a preliminary estimate, the deal that has been put forward would lead to a revenue loss of at least 350 million euros for ACP banana exporters between 2009 and 2016.

As compensation for such losses, the EU has said it is prepared to offer roughly 100 million euros in aid for the period 2010-2013, but ACP countries say they would need more.

”This helping hand they are offering us is clearly insufficient; 100 million doesn’t even scratch the surface of the needs of our banana growers,” said Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo, ambassador for the Dominican Republic.

ICTSD reporting; “ACP nations oppose EU banana tariff cut plans,” AFP, 7 April 2009; “Ecuador rejects EU call to drop WTO bananas suit,” INFOMEDIA, 22 April 2009.


Source: ictsd.net

Publication date: 4/30/2009

African Banana crop waste used for fuel

Fried, raw, baked or even distilled into beer or wine, bananas are a staple in the East African country of Rwanda, where approximately two million tons of the fruit are grown annually. Though much of the fruit is used, the majority of the skins, leaves and stems are left behind as waste.

Scientists at the University of Nottingham are developing ways to use the banana waste to produce fuel. Using minimal tools and technology, PhD student Joel Chaney has developed a method of producing simple banana briquettes that can be burnt as fuel.

“A big problem in the developing world is firewood,” Chaney tells Science Daily. “Huge areas of land are deforested every year, which leads to the land being eroded. People need fuel to cook and stay warm but they can’t afford the more expensive types, like gas.”

In additional to the resource depletion and erosion, collecting firewood can be a long process, with villagers spending hours traveling to and collecting forest wood for fuel.

To turn the banana waste into burnable briquettes, the banana skins and leaves are first mashed to a pulp and then mixed with sawdust or sun dried banana stems to create a moldable material. The pulp is compressed into a brick shape and baked in an oven, or sun dried for a few days if an oven is not available. Once dried, the bricks form an ideal fuel for cooking.

Similar to biochar, the technology of using waste to create a fuel source is a growing trend that could represent a solution to environmental challenges worldwide.

Click here to see a video

Publication date: 5/5/2009
Author: Shailaja VR
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com

AU: Barcodes for banana trees

You've heard of NLIS tags to track cattle, but now a plantation in Western Australia's north is applying similar technology to monitor bananas.

In an Australian first, the property in Carnarvon is using a scanner to barcode each banana plant, recording its height, age and suckers.

Grower Darrell Munro says it'll help take the guesswork out of when to pick the fruit.

"I mean, we've got nearly 30 acres of bananas and walking up and down every row every week," she says.

"Sometimes you walk for ages and you might only get one bunch in one patch.

"So this will pinpoint where the bunches are that are ready. That will be huge."


Source: abc.net.au


Publication date: 5/6/2009