Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2017-02-01-Speech-1-252-000"
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"en.20170201.18.1-252-000"2
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"Mr President, bananas are symbolic fruit. They play such an important part in the politics of some countries that the phrase ‘banana republic’ is used to describe a corrupt regime dominated by powerful corporations. How can it be rational that a tropical fruit which travels so far and bruises so easily is eaten more than any other in the UK?
This modified regulation enshrines even more of the worst aspects of our irrational relationship with this humble fruit. Its focus is to ensure supermarkets’ ability to continue to use bananas as a loss leader, so that their price does not reflect their true environmental cost. It simultaneously increases the risk that Andean countries will lose the preferential tariffs which underpin the livelihoods of poor farmers in countries like Ecuador, where 200 000 families depend on banana production, and 56% of the banana plantations are smaller than 10 hectares.
The Greens’ priority for trade is to ensure a comfortable life for all, without wasting energy and resources. Our priority for agriculture is to protect the livelihoods of small producers against the power of global corporations. This regulation does nothing to constrain the power of such powerful retailers, who undermine the minimum wage in the Ecuadorian banana sector. This so-called safeguard regulation dismisses social and ecological aspects of production, and should leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the millions of European consumers who choose a banana before other locally grown fruit."@en1
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