Bananas are a very important commodity for developing countries, with a clear dual nature which complicates the analysis. They are at the same time a major staple commodity, together with rice, wheat and maize, and a fundamental export commodity. Around one fifth of globally produced bananas are exported from the developing countries to the developed countries, an example of unidirectional South-North trade. The duality is also present in production systems, where large-scale banana plantations, mainly oriented to export markets, coexist along with smallholder banana farmers.
Many issues are involved in order to make of banana a very sensitive commodity at the international level, not only on economical grounds but also on the environmental, social and political aspects. During the last decades of the XX century, the export banana sector has shown a great dynamism and has undergone very important structural changes when facing challenges such as the successive reforms of the European Union (EU) Banana Regime and the following controversial World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute or the evolving pattern of consumer preferences and food distribution channel:
|
Information on international fruits market and more particularly on bananas, citrus fruits as well as other tropical fruit and vegetable products are updated on a regular basis within the framework of a partnership established with the "Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement" (Cirad).
The "FRuiTROP" monthly reports: (navigate to the appropriate page of the report)
We would like to thank Mr. Denis Loeillet, FruiTrop editor, who graciously agreed to make this monthly report available to Infocomm.
For further information, please refer to the CIRAD internet web |