2nd December, Banana Link

Stakeholders in the banana industry are to launch the World Banana Forum on sustainable banana production and trade at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy next week. This meeting is the result of years of previous collaborative work involving representatives from banana industry – civil society organisations, fruit companies, retailers and national governments - as part of the ‘Multi-Stakeholder Forum Project’. This project has been coordinated with support from Banana Link and is implemented by the FAO with co-funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom.

The meeting is expected to result in the launching of a permanent forum that will facilitate the sharing of information, ideas and best practices among the stakeholders of the banana sector. The forum will promote collaboration between stakeholders on specific topics including sustainable production systems, environmental impact, workplace issues and value distribution along the marketing chain. It will create permanent working groups to identify best practices in the field, validate them and disseminate them throughout the banana sector.

Various stakeholders are expected to attend the Forum including banana trade associations, private companies (major banana marketing companies and retailers), civil society and small farmers’ organizations and government representatives.

Banana Link and our partners in Latin America, West Africa and the Caribbean hope that the forum will provide a long-awaited platform to tackle the various social, environmental and economic issues and improve conditions for workers and small farmers on the ground. There will be regular progress reports on the Banana Link website.

For more information, click here to visit the website of the World Banana Forum.

Source: Banana Link