MORE MARKET CHANCES FOR BANANAS FROM FAIR TRADE - POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS

THE VIEWPOINT OF A GERMAN CONSUMER ORGANIZATION

Mrs. Grunewald, Central Consumer Organization of Lower Saxony

For a couple of years, One-World-shops and nature food stores have already been offering fair traded bananas in Germany. They have mainly been bought by so called bio-consumers and people who are interested in development policy. Appearance, size and taste of thoses fruits strongly differ from common retail trade bananas. The share in the entire banana consumption, however, remains insignificant. As far as other fair traded products are concerned, the situation had been quite similar before products with Transfair-labels were introduced in consumer- and supermarkets. Transfair- coffee and tea can be purchased almost everywhere. Despite hard price fights on the coffee market and the significantly higher price of the coffee, Transfair-roast coffee has gained a stable market share of 1% within six years. Today, after three years of existence, the market share of Transfair-tea amounts to 3% of the black and green tea consumtion.

Better accessibility of fair traded bananas might have a positive influence on sales in Germany. Fair-bananas should be offered in consumer- and supermarkets. Since most stores offer only one sort, such an introduction would definitely not be easy. It is also important that Fair-bananas become a permanent part of the offer.

For bananas to be introduced in consumer- and supermarkets one sort with clearly defined characteristics should be developed. Due to its popularity among consumers ‘Transfair’ might be a suitable sort. Demands concerning cultivation and social production conditions should clearly be higher than normal cultivation conditions.

The price of bananas plays a major role for German consumers. After the price increase of 25 % caused by the banana market rules of 1993, banana consumption fell by 16% in comparison to the previous year. Last year’s price increase for bananas of about 7% caused a consumption decrease of almost 12% (according to ZMP-report OBST 97). On the basis of these facts and the consumers’ theoretical willingness to pay more for fair traded products, the additional charge should not be higher than 10% in order to guarantee a quick, acceptable turnover of this sensitive fruit.

As far as the consumer’s buying decision is concerned, the quality of bananas is almost as relevant as their price (GFK 1997, conference reader, page 13). Quality surely means appearance, odour, taste and degree of firmness. The size seems to be less important; it is laid down by EU marketing norms anyway. Bananas should be yellow with green tips, should be tasty and solid and should have a balanced acid-sugar-relationship. In order to reach a good acceptance of Fair-bananas, their quality should correspond with the quality of dollar bananas, especially if an additional charge is to be realized.

Remark: Ecologically cultivated bananas have to meet other requirements.