Latin American banana producers and exporters have rejected the European Union's unilateral decision to reduce the maximum residue limits (MRLs) allowed in the production and export of fruits. At a meeting held on December 18, 2019, in San Jose, Costa Rica, representatives of the associations of banana producers and exporters from Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Belize, and Panama signed a document that they will present to their Governments, in which they express their concern over this new EU measure and ask that it be reversed.
The event was attended by representatives of the Association of Independent Banana Producers (APIB) of Guatemala, Ecuador's Association of Banana Exporters (AEBE), Ecuador's Banana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec), the Association of Banana Producers of Colombia (Augura), Costa Rica's National Banana Corporation (Corbana), Costa Rica's National Chamber of Banana (Canaba), the Association of Independent Banana Producers (Aproban) of Costa Rica, Panama's Banapiña, the National Chamber of Melon and Watermelon Producers and Exporters Canapems of Costa Rica, and the Banana Growers Association of Belize (BGA).
Richard Salazar, the manager of Acorbanec, said that these decisions were far from what is established in the Codex Alimentarius and in the Agreement for the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the World Trade Organization, WTO.
According to banana growers in the region, this action by the European bloc would put exports to that destination at risk.
In 2018 Latin America and the Caribbean exported 15.3 million tons of bananas. This means that the region accounted for 80% of all world sales.
Source: elcomercio.com
