iation of European Banana Producers (APEB) has announced that it wishes to maintain the community's production, its acres and the producers' income until 2020.The group said it would take the necessary measures to “counter the agreements between the EU and Latin American countries that ignore food security and the environment”.
Established in the Canary Islands in 1989, APEB represents the community banana producers of Martinique/Guadeloupe (France), Madeira (Portugal) and the Canary Islands (Spain).
This covers 19,956 hectares, 11,930 producers and approximately 700,000 tons of production.
This union has made it possible for EU banana producers to face the successive reforms against its interests that the Latin American countries and the US banana multinationals have constantly made, said the association.
The completion of the supply systems, twenty-one years ago, led to EU authorities recognising the need European banana producers had of direct aid to maintain their production.
“The producers have maintained their commitment, making effective use of the aid they receive to maintain a crop that, in the case of the Canary Islands, uses the same amount of acres and has the same amount of producers with a fixed workforce, both in the farms and in the packing facilities,” said the APEB.
Aid was fully recognised by the European Union in 2007, said the association, and hasn't been changed since then.
The producers added that the community's banana sector existed solely because of the union between the regions.
