PREFACE

Bananas - Sustainable Consumption and Trade

The international congress "Bananas - Sustainable Consumption and Trade" was part of the preparatory work for the international banana conference "Towards a Sustainable Banana Economy", which will take place in Brussels from May 4th to May 6th, 1998. In view of the critical social, ecological and economic situation in the producer countries, the Brussels conference intends to produce a Banana Charter as the first step towards a more sustainable banana industry. Representatives of the political, economic and scientific communities and citizens are invited to actively participate in the conference, which will be organised by a large alliance of trade unions, producer associations, development policy-related NGOs, youth and church groups, and alternative and Fair Trade initiatives.

The Banana Charter shall serve as a common international basis for activities aimed at a more sustainable banana economy. The comprehensive goals of the International Conference are:

• to secure the rights of workers, including social rights and the right to form trade unions,
• to provide better market access for small and medium-sized producers,
• to present a new concept for the European Banana Market,
• to support alternative and Fair Trade organisations,
• to establish ecological criteria for a sustainable banana production,
• to propose trade instruments and marketing initiatives such as clauses, codes of conduct and labels to support the transition to a more sustainable banana trade.

The preparatory work included conferences in different European, Carribbean and Latin American countries. In Germany, BanaFair/The Banana Campaign, EUROBAN, FIA and other environmental groups organised the conference "Bananas - Sustainable Consumption and Trade" to bring together participants from the north and the south, and to define the meaning of sustainability in the context of banana trade and consumption. For two days, more than 50 participants from 20 countries had constructive discussions not only on consumption and trade, but also with representatives of trading companies and consumer associations. The conference served as a forum in which participants of the international banana trade could evaluate strategies to stimulate certain trade and consumption patterns. The principle questions were: What are the consumers’ most important expectations? How do banana-trading companies operate? How much influence do consumer associations and the banana consumption in the north have on the producer countries in the south? Which trade policy measures could make the banana economy more sustainable? Which political frameworks have an influence on this issue?

The present documentation is published in English and in Spanish. It contains a compilation of all available recordings made during the conference. Owing to technical problems, not all contributions could be recorded on Friday, which is why this documentation only contains those contributions that were handed in in a written form.