African banana growers fear impact of WTO deal

By Loucoumane Coulibaly

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - While banana growers in Latin America celebrate Sunday's global trade deal to cut European Union import tariffs, African farmers fear it could put them out of business.

Ivory Coast, as well being the world's number one cocoa producer, also is one of the biggest African banana growers, with an industry that supports thousands of jobs and produces 280,000 tonnes of the fruit every year.

Of that, 230,000 tonnes are sold to Europe, according to industry figures, and farmers fear they will be squeezed out of the market by their transatlantic rivals as a result of the deal cut at World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

"As a producer, I am very worried. I represent producers, and we are worried because it is the end," said Mathias Aka N'Goan, president of the banana and pineapple exporters organisation.

"Others will take over the market so the selling price of bananas will no longer be enough to make it worthwhile to produce in Ivory Coast," he said, estimating that 300,000 people in the West African nation depend on the banana industry for their livelihoods.

The EU and Latin American exporters agreed to cut the EU's import duty to 114 euros (90 pounds) a tonne by 2016 after an initial cut to 148 euros in 2009 from 176 euros now.

As a consequence, cheaper bananas from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries' competitive Latin American rivals could devastate ACP banana output, some countries warn.

Their bananas face no EU import duty under the bloc's preferential trade deals with former colonies.