Bananas are worldwide a very important source of food with an annual production of more than 130 million tons. India is the largest producer in the world with almost 30 million tons, whilst Latin American countries dominate the international banana trade. It has been established that the fruit in sub-Saharan Africa supplies the most important contribution to healthy food of more than 100 million people.
Uganda after India the largest producer annually only exports 10% of the production, whilst Latin America and the Caribbean are responsible for 70% of the worldwide banana export. Here the large fruit multinationals, such as Dole and Chiquita, dominate. With Fresh Del Monte they control 65% of the world export. Other parties are the Ecuadorian company Noboa (7%) and the European Fyffes (10%).
A banana war has been going on for years between the largest producers of Latin America and the European Union. In 1993 an import arrangement was agreed, in which importers were allowed free entrance to mostly small producers in the Caribbean area. Under pressure of the larger producers it was recently decided to decrease the Latin American import tariff by 35% over a period of six years. Critics are of the opinion that because of this the production in the Caribbean, where the cultivation of bananas is an important source of income, will decrease.
Source: The African Centre for Biosafety