Report launch event in the European Parliament with Make Fruit Fair
On 10 November 2015 the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) together with the Make Fruit Fair campaign organised a lunch event for their new report: “Banana value chains in Europe and the consequences of Unfair Trading Practices” in the European Parliament which was hosted by Member of European Parliament Olga Sehnalova (S&D, Czech Republic).
The report, commissioned by FTAO and Banana Link, was presented and expanded on with first-hand experience from producer and worker perspective by the following speakers:
- Christophe Alliot, author of the report Banana value chains in Europe and the consequences of Unfair Trading Practices.
- Mbide Charles Kude, General Secretary of Fako Agricultural Workers Union (FAWU) which organises plantation workers in South West Cameroon.
- Iris Munguia, the Coordinator of Regional Coordination of Latin American Banana & Other Agroindustrial Product Worker Unions (COLSIBA)
- José Madriz, an insider of the banana industry who has worked as a manager for several big banana corporations in Latin America. After switching sides, he joined the Latin American network of Fair Trade small producers (CLAC) in 2013.
- Kozel Fraser, representative of the Windward Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA)
Suggestions on how the European Union should tackle the problem of UTPs in this multi-billion Euro market were given by:
- Franziska Humbert, Oxfam Germany
Reactions to the presentation were given by:
- Péter Szilágyi, Department of Food Processing and Food Regulation, Ministry of Rural Development, Hungary
- Sean Browne, UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Eliana Guarnoni, Altroconsumo, Italy
- Christine Delberge, EuroCommerce, representing the Supply Chain Initiative (SCI)
- Dennis De Jong, Member of the European Parliament (GUE, Netherlands)
The conference was moderated by Sergi Corbalán, Fair Trade Advocacy Office.
Pictures of that day’s events and activities can be found here.
Here you can find the: