The Banana Maritime Transportation between
Côte d'Ivoire and European Union
Bananas are world's several largest fruit commodity exported.
This fruit is well known for require high standards for transportation, which
made all the interest of the subject. Historically, a banana comes from the
Asia where it was cultivated more than 3000 years ago. It was introduced in the
XVI century in Côte d'Ivoire.
It exist more than 1000 variety of bananas regrouped in 50
groups. One as to make the difference between the dessert banana and the
plantain banana, which had to be bake.
The plantain banana is normally not exported because it is often
consumed directly in the country of origin. Côte d'Ivoire exported the
Cavendish type, which is a dessert sort.
Côte d'Ivoire is situated in West Africa. It was in the
past a French colony. As a result, contact with Europe and especially France
still strong. Bilateral agreements were concluded between France and Côte
d'Ivoire for the banana exportation. Besides it is also one of the ACP
countries, which are bound with EU with the Lomé IV convention.
The banana in Côte d'Ivoire is one of the most important
export activities. But, the competition of South and Central America production
makes live hard for this country banana. A lot of commercial conflicts exist in
the matter and the maritime transportation of the Côte d'Ivoire bananas
is influenced by the so-called "banana war".
Therefore it seems impossible to speak about banana explaining
the commercial issue of this transport.
The first part of this thesis willexplain the relation between
banana market and the transport of this product. It will also speak about the
special organisation of this trade in Côte d'Ivoire. The European union
is a protected area of the importation of bananas. Côte d'Ivoire because
of is relation with France and because he is an ACP country is privileged
country.
The taxes are non-existent for those countries and the quotas
allocated to them are bigger than
the quantities allowed for the non-ACP
country (dollar bananas). The Latina American
production is in the hands of the USA companies and the USA
obtained of complete liberalisation of this market. The European Union is
actually in a big figth with the USA and ACP banana product country. The matter
is in front of the WTO and the EU has already been forced to made concession.
It is not good for Côte d'Ivoire, which must be more and more cost
effective to be abble to complete with the very low price of the so-called
dollar banana.
Therefore, the organisation of the banana transport had been
changed to be more efficient. The government had liberalised the transport
matter and the chain of transport is organised in detail by an agreement
between grower, shippers, carriers and receivers. Companies as Del Monte and
Dole arrived in Côte d'Ivoire in the late eighties and they introduced a
more industrial way of cultivation and exportation of bananas.
The sale of the fruit has also a specific form. It's generally a
FOB or CIF basis but the sale could be also a consignement commission basis.
The second part will explain more specifically the technical
aspect of this transport and the several legal problems bound to the fragile
product.
The banana is indeed the most difficult fruit to transport
and therefore, damages to bananas are frequent. The techniques of transport are
always in evolution. The fruit require lots of attention and the vessels are
mre and more specific and by this way the risks are minimised. The
responsability has to be determined.
The contracts (Bills of Lading and Charter Parties) are
especially created for this kind of transport. A special schedule is planned
for the transport of Côte d'Ivoire's bananas. The temperature
instructions are also planned in those contracts. After a study of these
documents, the liabilities of each party in different situations will have to
be determined.
The damages cold happen before loading (if the bananas wait a
too long time on the pier before loading they will begin to ripe and once
bananas begin to ripe there is nothing to stop the process), during transport
(problems with temperature control for example), during discharge (bad
handling).
The damages could also be caused by fruit itslef. Some
illness can seriously affect bananas. For example, black Sigatoka is often
occures disease. The question of the proper vice will asked.
Once the cause of damage has been determined, the legal
procedurehas to be started. Then, a third party arrives on the scene: the
insurer. He is playing an important role to chase or to defend cargo
underwriter an /or the liability underwriters of the parties in the transport
chain. The proof of the damage has to be done and it's generally not easy to be
totally discharged of any liability, the damages having generally not only one
cause.
All those problems and technical issues made all the
particularity of the banana maritime transportation and Côte d'Ivoire
case is a really good example, perfectly illustratingthe difficulties and the
comlexities of subject.
To conclude this brief presentation of the matter, we can say
that the future of Côte d'Ivoire to bananas is not settled for the
moment. The issue of the fight between USA and EU will be determinant. We can
suggest that a new way of the conception of the banana transportation and
cultivation have to be developed if Côte d'Ivoire still wants to be
competitive in this trade. A label of quality as a BIO label could boost the
sales on the European market because of the attraction of the consumer to the
environmentally "correct" products.
