Accra (Ghana), 2018, August 08th – The Banana Producers Association (BPA) of Ghana officially announced its membership to Afruibana in order to defend the interests of the African banana industry before the European institutions.
Starting negotiations at the Fruit Logistica exhibition, which occurred in Berlin from February 7 to 9, the BPA has finalized its membership to Afruibana last month. An important step for Afruibana, as the European Commission, will start negotiations on the post-Cotonou agreement by the end of August, of which bananas will be a major issue.
The BPA, therefore, joins the Banana Association of Cameroon (Assobacam) and the Organization of Banana, Pineapple and Mango Producers-Exporters of Côte d'Ivoire. (OBAM-CI). With the accession of Ghana, Afruibana now represents the three main African banana-exporting countries to the European Union (EU), in Brussels. In 2017, Ghana exported 70,373 tons of bananas to the European market, just behind Cameroon (270,377 tons) and Côte d'Ivoire (315,797 tons). For these three countries, the European market accounts for more than 80% of their export market.
" The Banana Producers Association, Ghana 's accession to Afruibana confirms the relevance of Afruibana's creation, meeting the expectations of African banana producers" stated Joseph Owona Kono, President of Afruibana, "The European institutional agenda of 2018 is quite full and Afruibana will have to defend African interests with all its weight, on the topics of tariff regimes applied to the banana imports from Latam countries and the maintenance of stabilization mechanisms for the banana market".
"We are very pleased to join Afruibana to contribute to the work of the association for the defense of African interests in Brussels," confirms the president of the Banana Producers Association, Ghana, Mr. Anthony Kofi Blay, "Ghana's banana producers are all the more worried about Brexit, given that the UK is an important share of our market in Europe".
About AFRUIBANA
AFRUIBANA is an association established under Cameroonian law with headquarters in Douala and representation in EU institutions in Brussels. AFRUIBANA was created as a union of several associations of fruit growers and exporters across Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The association represents and seeks to air the views of African fruit producers to international institutions within the framework of bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations.
The banana industry in the Ivory Coast and Cameroon employs over 15,000 people, in turn representing nearly 50,000 indirect jobs in each country. The two countries together produced nearly 600,000 tons of bananas in 2017.
www.afruibana.com
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