Bananas

[cyril evans awaydays]

No, I'm in a very rural location and although I'm retired now I did used to own a fairly big farm, so I must have been very lucky to get away with my poor knowledge of agriculture.
I must say that I've never grown bananas - very few people seem to round here actually, even in the rural parts.
Perhaps you could explain where I'm going wrong in my thinking

No problem. The EU had an agreement with its former colonial countries that allowed preferential trade into the EU. This was called the Lome Agreement. The US (under lobbying pressure from Chiquita who grow no bananas in the US but have extensive interests in Latin America) challenged Lome at the WTO and won. The EU responded by trying its best to defend the African Caribbean Pacific Countries most effected but the US challenged again and won. The EU had to significantly revise its banana regime as a consequence. The cheaper dollar banana from Latin America as a consequence of US pressure decimated the Caribbean industry in economies far more dependent than Jamaica such as the Windward Islands. The EU scrambled to install a regime that at least alleviated some of this damage that was WTO compatible whilst also brokering a compromise with the US. The Cotonou agreement that replaced Lome gives significant funding to the affected countries and their producers that tries to soften the impact of US commercial aggression. The key reason why (if you lived in South Wales) you won't see many Geest/Fyffes bananas landing in South Wales ports.

What do yo farm in East Anglia by the way? I have a reasonable understanding of the agricultural sector in that area and how it operates that we can chat about?