SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 4 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Platform for a Fair and Authentic Price for Canary Islands Banana Farmers has accused Asprocan (Association of Organizations of Canary Islands Banana Producers) this Wednesday of “undermining” banana growers by endorsing a rise of 2.2 million units last August, along with the sanction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands.
In a statement, it warns that the marketing of Canary Island bananas is in a “critical and devastating” state, jeopardising the livelihoods of thousands of families in the Canary Islands, hence the demand for an urgent meeting with the councillor, Narvay Quintero.
They appeal to the Government to fulfil its legal responsibilities to audit the management of the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) overseen by the producer organisations, since in 2015 the Canarian Government transferred its oversight to Asprocan.
The platform highlights that the “excessively high” rates of ‘pica’ last month reached 15% of the total traded volume in the third week, escalating to 18% in the fourth week.
“This suggests that a considerable portion of Canary Island bananas are discarded in landfills in appalling conditions, repurposed as livestock feed or, at best, are donated and wholly financed by the farmers themselves,” it elaborates.
Along these lines, it maintains that this scenario is “devastating” for the harvesters, “who have expended effort and resources in the hope that their production will reach consumer homes”, while underlining the “significant failure” in PGI management marked by the decline in prices throughout 2023 and the initial three months of the current year, leading to an increasing number of farmers abandoning this activity.
“They had not managed to recuperate from the financial setback they faced last year and are now compelled to confront another crisis due to plummeting prices,” reiterated the platform.
When it comes to assigning blame, it contends that “all this is a result of poor administration in the marketing of bananas by Asprocan, intensified by disputes among various banana organisations and the unfair competition stemming from sales managed by the producer organisations themselves (PPOs).”
In light of this dire situation, this collective of banana growers is increasingly worried that the Agriculture Department of the Canary Islands Government “appears to lack technical expertise and adopts Asprocan’s recommendations for market balancing with a measure – the pica – that the European Union only permits in instances of crisis and risk management.”
It notes that “the absence of specialists capable of directing bananas to superior markets and fostering their expansion” results in “inaction that perpetuates a continual crisis in the sector,” which directly supports tens of thousands of jobs across the archipelago.
