BASF eco efficiency analysis and other top news for Jan. 20

Luis of the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group uncovers another gem this morning, a report about the BASF eco-efficiency analysis. From the post, the description of what this eco-efficiency analysis is all about:

Is it ecologically responsible to buy an apple from overseas? Shouldn’t people as a rule choose fruit from national or local producers? Such questions play an every greater role in consumers’ buying decisions. Yet our gut feelings can be misleading. Approaches, such as BASF’s eco-efficiency analysis, make it possible to carry out an objective assessment.

TK: There may be more than one way to carry out an "objective assessment" but this BASF method show that environmental assumptions don't always sync with reality. Check out the post on the FPIDG for the full tale of the tape.

Other headlines snatched from the Web today

Apple crop shrinks a little Washington's record crop drops from 112.7 to 111.8 million boxes. Small fruit diverted to processing and trend may continue.

Betting on bananas at the inauguration A Swedish company has a betting line on what words President Obama will say at inaguration; "bananas" is 1,000 to 1.

EU pesticide legislation approved USDA FAS report on EU developments

Crude oil falls below $35 as recession deepens Stockpiles grow but OPEC cuts could hike prices in second half of 2009

Europe takes two steps backward in food safety Coverage from Kenya on Europe's new approach to pesticide regulation

Initial assessments of earlier versions of this legislation concluded that up to 85 per cent of chemicals under review could be banned. The Swedish Government now estimates that 23 chemicals will be de-listed. But uncertainty prevails, as no rigorous, EU-wide assessment of the legislation has been undertaken.

Even a conservative implementation of the new rules would increase the prevalence of food-borne pests and cause the food supply to decrease.

A British environmental consultancy estimates it would cause a drop in overall EU food production of at least 25 per cent, raising food prices and putting an enormous burden on low-income Europeans.

More pesticides banned; farmers fear food crisis More European coverage of pesticide issue

Obesity and the addiction to food The theme: foodaholics anon

Can we believe in change at USDA? Chuck Hassebrook touted by Grist for high level USDA job

Salinas leaders frustrated over violence

Europe can't get bananas right

It's a topic that's been in the news for years. In fact, in 1992, I wrote this piece for The Packer:

For Hans, Pedro and the Chiquita lady, the best thing that could happen to the post-1992 European banana trade probably won't.
European consumers, Latin American banana growers and multinational marketing companies all have reason to be disappointed with recent policy developments in the European Community -- a region that accounts for one-third of the world's banana imports.
Instead of fulfilling banana marketers' dreams of unrestricted banana imports into a unified post-1992 Europe, the European Community Commission in April revealed plans to expand the EC's policy of giving preferential treatment to former colonies and dependents in Africa and the Caribbean while restricting and taxing banana imports from so-called ``dollar banana'' countries in Latin America.
The repercussions mean Hans could pay more German marks per banana, Pedro could lose his farm in Costa Rica and the Chiquita lady could have more bananas on her hat than she cares to balance. Dole, Del Monte, Turbana and other banana companies will have their hands full as well.


Fast forward 16 years and here is the latest news from Europe on bananas from a Reuters report:

A long-running row over bananas that threatens to derail talks on a new global trade pact simmered on Tuesday with no immediate solution in sight.
The dispute, turning on the terms for European Union imports, pits producers from Latin American countries and the United States against other poor African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the EU.
"I hope we can have contact with some of the banana countries in the next 24 hours and see what prospects there are for working together," a European diplomat told Reuters.
But no formal negotiations were scheduled.
For some producers the row threatens a key economic sector.
They are prepared to block World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks this week seeking a breakthrough in the Doha negotiations for a global trade deal in order to press their demands, just as the banana dispute nearly scuppered Doha's launch in 2001.
"We're ready to walk away if there is nothing on bananas," said a diplomat from Ecuador, the world's top banana exporter.
The EU has lost nearly a dozen trade disputes over bananas. It has now changed its import rules and levies a tariff of 176 euros ($280) a tonne except for fruit from ACP countries, mainly former European colonies, which enjoy duty-free access.
COMPROMISE PROPOSED
Latin American growers say this is still discriminatory.
ACP countries point to the growing Latin American share of the European market and say they need more time to adjust.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy proposed a compromise for the EU and the Latin Americans under which the EU tariff would fall to 116 euros over seven years, with an initial cut of 26 euros.
A "peace clause" would also deem outstanding disputes settled and protect the EU from future challenges to the regime.
The EU, despite misgivings from ACP growers and the French Caribbean and Spanish Canary Islands, accepted the offer.
But the Latin Americans on Friday sought further talks, prompting EU officials to say they could go no further.
"The process is ongoing and (Lamy) is available to help facilitate an agreement in any way that he can," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told a news conference.
Failure to settle bananas separately would mean bringing the dispute into the already complex and shaky WTO talks.
Latin American exporters say including bananas in the WTO's negotiations on tropical products would result in much bigger tariff cuts than those accepted by the EU.
But the ACP countries could seek to counter any such move by putting bananas on a list of products they export and which would retain high import tariffs so as not to erode the European trade perks they have historically enjoyed.
The Latin Americans and ACP countries have been negotiating over 42 overlapping items on their lists, and the Latin Americans proposed letting the ACPs keep 30 products while they hold 12 on their list, said Ronald Saborio Soto, WTO ambassador for Costa Rica, which chairs the tropical products group.
But agreement will be impossible if both put bananas on their lists because of failure to resolve the dispute.
Colombia, keen to reach a free-trade agreement with the EU, has accepted Lamy's proposal. But other Latin Americans such as Ecuador and Costa Rica are proposing a tariff of 109 euros over 5 years with a downpayment of 35 euros.
"This is not a rejection of Lamy's proposal," Saborio told Reuters. "We can accept Lamy's architecture. We are only proposing some modest changes to the numbers."
Otherwise the Latin Americans could insist that bananas be treated like any other farm product in the Doha round, which would cut their tariff to 76 euros, or put it on the tropical products list -- "There's nothing more tropical than bananas" -- which would see the tariff plunge to 26 euros, he said.
Saborio said the Latin Americans could even agree to the peace clause for the EU -- a key concern of Brussels -- although that was still to be negotiated.
"The EC has indicated that they don't want to move. They say we can take what Pascal Lamy put on the table," Saborio said. "They may take that view but then we will have big trouble in other tropical products."

TK: Latin American producers have never received their due from Europe and it sounds like they are not going to take it any more, to the peril of global trade talks.

Sad nanner

I've heard it said that emotionally, people are like bananas -- they bruise on the inside.

I always thought that was a sappy (though true) sentiment.

Nevertheless, this banana could use a hug.

Bananas -- slipping into history?

Hello. Packer copy chief Fred Wilkinson weighing in with my inaugural posting on Tom Karst's Fresh Talk.

Back in February, I reviewed author Dan Koeppel's book "Banana," where he warns that pest and disease threats are poised to make the cavendish bananas consumed worldwide history .

Koeppel makes his case again in a recent New York Times column, ending on this somber note:

" ... bananas have always been an emblem of a long-distance food chain.
Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that,
some day soon, may slip beyond our reach."

Check out Koeppel's blog for a roundup of banana-related news and links.

Banana RIP?

So warns this article from The Scientist, a story that recounts the last 100 years of commercial marketing of the banana. From the story by Dan Koeppel:

The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one - known as the Gros Michel - was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct.

Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies - Chiquita and Dole - because it was resistant to that blight, a fungus known as Panama disease. For the past fifty years, all has been quiet in the banana world. Until now.


Panama disease - or Fusarium wilt of banana - is back, and the Cavendish does not appear to be safe from this new strain, which appeared two decades ago in Malaysia, spread slowly at first, but is now moving at a geometrically quicker pace. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that though Panama disease has yet to hit the banana crops of Latin America, which feed our hemisphere, the question is not if this will happen, but when. Even worse, the malady has the potential to spread to dozens of other banana varieties, including African bananas, the primary source of nutrition for millions of people.

Crop disease is only half the problem. The other part is denial. One of the most recent places Panama disease struck was Australia. Three years ago, when I was researching my book on bananas, growers down under were bragging that they'd found a way to control the disease, which first appeared in 1997 near the Northern Territory town of Darwin. "We have developed a rapid and accurate DNA-based diagnostic test...used in the detection and management of outbreaks," asserted a brochure issued by the country's Cooperative Research Centre for Plant Protection.



TK: Koeppel suggests that banana companies are unwisely downplaying the risk of Panama disease in Central and South America and notes that the next banana variety with wilt resistance will come from a biotech lab.