Joseph Owona Kono, President of Afruibana: ‘An unregulated market is a market doomed to fail’

What is your assessment of the African banana sector after a year marked and disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic? It would appear that, both on the supply and demand sides, the disruptions were not major — with the exception of Cameroon, though for domestic reasons?

It has been a difficult year for all Africa-Caribbean-Pacific production. Cameroon’s problems were exacerbated by internal production issues. These are cyclical problems and we are in the process of resolving them. But broadly speaking, we have had to contend with the fierce competition imposed on us in the market by Latin American origins. An oversupply that should have been better managed. The difficulties were further compounded by Covid-19. The closure of the Eastern European market to Latin American bananas meant that they flooded the European market in larger volumes, leading to significant price falls.

Did the fall in prices come with a reduction in volumes from African origins, excluding Cameroon?

All things being equal, there was no real collapse. Today, a country such as Ecuador places 7 million tonnes of bananas on the market, whilst all ACP countries combined struggle to achieve just over one million tonnes. The issue is not one of increasing market volumes, but rather the response to what we can consider unfair competition. Bananas of Latin American origin already have their market, which is the United States, yet we cannot access it. Among ACP countries, if you take the Dominican Republic, situated just a short distance from the United States, it cannot place a single gramme of bananas on the American market. For ACP origins, our primary market is Europe. When there is a distortion of competition through a greater influx of product on the market — particularly from new entrants such as the Andean countries, Peru and others, whose volumes are not regulated — this creates additional market pressures.

With regard to the Abidjan Call launched in 2019, you have therefore received no concrete response from the European Union on market regulation?

We have received no direct response. However, we have had interlocutors who have given serious consideration to this matter. We are continuing the discussions, and with the publication of a White Paper in the coming months, we will have a window of opportunity. Europe is attentive — whether at the level of Parliament, the Commission, the Council, or indeed national governments. We cannot say that it was a call made in vain. But it is a long-term endeavour.

What of the support programmes for producers?

It was important for the post-Cotonou Agreement to be signed so as to put in place new financing instruments. At present, in the various countries, we are at the pre-programming stage with local European Union delegations and the national authorising officer for what was formerly known as the EDF (European Development Fund), and we are ensuring that bananas are taken into account by the new financing instrument.

Have you already put a figure on this support?

In practice, we are going to work differently from the way we operated under the EDF, where we had a ring-fenced envelope for bananas. Today the approach is thematic. For instance, within the infrastructure envelope, what can be done for bananas both at the national and sub-regional level.

Is the partnership agreement with the EU not stalling?

No, I do not think so. The agreement concluded on 3 December 2020 is a highly ambitious one and will make it possible to enter concretely into a mutually beneficial relationship. If the agreement took time, it is because there were political and technical issues to resolve in order to arrive at an instrument that governs relations between Europe and Africa for the next twenty years. It is not solely about the financial dimension.

What are your expectations for the African banana sector this year? Or the priority actions to be taken?

We will continue our campaign to put in place a regulatory mechanism. An unregulated market is a market doomed to fail. We also believe that, whilst the European Union has thus far demonstrated its support for the African banana, the time has come for this to materialise through the establishment of genuinely effective market governance instruments — and not some bureaucratic quagmire. We will also reaffirm our own commitment through initiatives that enable us to improve the carbon footprint of our production and thereby preserve biodiversity. It is not solely about the market dimension if we are to continue to exist, bearing in mind that bananas are a driver of development in the countries where the industry operates.

From July 2021, Fairtrade intends to impose a base wage in all Fairtrade-certified plantations (Read: New base wage for Fairtrade banana producers), which will certainly be higher than the one currently in force. What is your view on this?

In the three member countries of Afruibana — Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana — I challenge anyone to claim that the wages being paid are not living wages. I believe there is a confusion between income, standard of living, and wages. If you earn a salary of CFA 100,000 and your children’s schools are 50 kilometres away, you are obliged to maintain two households; your salary may perhaps qualify as a living wage by the definition, but does it actually allow you to live? An effort is being made, and it must be possible to incorporate into the living wage all the benefits provided by the plantations.

Interview published in Commodafrica on 09 March 2021.