Eurocrats will not bend on bananas

Date published: 03/01/2008

Europe's bendy banana rules are set to stay, Rochdale Euro-MP Chris Davies has been told.

Although the law has been the butt of many jokes since it came into force in 1994, the European Commission claims that it has received no objections from banana growers, buyers, traders or consumers.

Eurosceptics claim that the regulation is an example of European-wide meddling in trivial matters.

But Liberal Democrat Chris Davies says that it simply provides a quality standard and that no banana is banned from sale however bendy it may be.

He said: "People think bananas are just bananas, but there’s a huge difference between a long, straight one from Costa Rica and a short, curvy one from Cyprus or the Canaries.

"It may not matter much to most people, but it matters a lot to supermarkets buying bananas by the million.

"They want to know just what’s in the box, and they want a legal framework for the business."

The EU regulation bans the sale of bananas that are rotten or infected by insects.

It permits the sale of bananas with "abnormal curvature" but says they must be described as class ll bananas for the purpose of packing into boxes.

Mr Davies added: "If the banana growers and the banana buyers want the rules why should anyone else object? Strip away the anti-European nonsense and there are sound reasons for most EU laws."

In reply to a parliamentary question tabled by the Euro-MP, the Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel confirmed that there were no plans to revise the quality standards.