The French West Indian island of Guadeloupe is expected to increase banana production to 100,000 tonnes by 2020, a sign of the success of the ongoing Sustainable Banana Plan launched by UGPBAN, the union of banana producer groups of Guadeloupe and Martinique, France-Antilles reported.
Banana production in Guadeloupe presently stands at around 77,000 tonnes, with informal estimates nearer 85,000 tonnes, meaning the cultivation of an additional 23,000 tonnes over the next three to four years.
However, the logic behind this increase has been questioned, since the POSEI programme, which is the EU’s way of supporting its outermost regions, only subsidises Guadeloupe bananas up to a volume of 77,000 tonnes.
Without the €404 a tonne subsidy from the EU, producing bananas for the European market would be unviable, according to UGPBAN. Therefore, planters are hoping to receive assistance via other sources, such as from the region or the state.
Ary Chalus, president of the region, has committed to a project that will create 500 jobs and set up 40 young farmers, although hope remains that the state will pick up half of the cost, as it reportedly did for sugar cane producers on the island of Réunion.
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