Volta River Estates workers demonstrate in Accra.

Workers of Volta River Estates (VRE), a banana grower and exporter in the Eastern Region today, staged a peaceful demonstration in Accra to protest against what they said was unfair export quota of the European Union market. Over 200 placard-bearing demonstrators converged in front of the Accra office of the European Union where they presented a petition to the EU.

Their message, as was reflected on the various placards, was to give Ghana's banana a license-free quota to the European market, the largest banana market in the world.

Some of the placards read: "do not cripple Ghana's banana industry", "EU play fair", "Give Ghana a license-free quota", and "Ghana's survival on the EU market depends on you".

At the moment, Ghana exports banana to the EU market under a general quota allocation of 5,000 tonnes granted to non-traditional exporters of the African-Caribbean and Pacific nations. Without a quota, Ghana's main producer, VRE, would have to acquire a special licence to export to the EU market.

Last year, VRE paid 1.7 billion cedis to procure a licence for its exports to the EU market and this year the figure has gone up to three billion cedis.

The Government of Ghana since 1993 has unsuccessfully pursued a quota of 10,000 tonnes about 0.2 per cent of a market share of 4.2 million tonnes a year for Ghana's bananas.

There is a trade dispute between the World Trade Organisation and the EU over access of banana exports to the EU market, with the WTO pressing for a liberalised, free and competitive market while the EU prefers the current Banana Protocol known as Regulation 404/93.

VRE workers think Regulation 404/93 is in direct contravention with the Lome Convention, which guarantees free trade between ACP countries and the EU. The workers have also sent a similar petition to the Minister of Trade and Industry.