E.U. aids in rehabilitation of banana fields

The banana industry has received more assistance from the European Union to compensate for declining price supports. Two contracts, totalling over one point one million Belize dollars, were awarded locally for rehabilitation of farms. The first, granted to the University of Belize, was for six hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars to supply four hundred and twenty thousand cultured or in-vitro banana plants to replace present varieties. The other, for four hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars, awarded to Kerbo Farms, calls for the preparation of four hundred and ninety-four acres of land for planting. The purpose of the E.U. Banana Support Programme is to improve efficiency and productivity of the industry to make it more competitive on a world market in which Belize and other former colonies must compete with high volume Latin American producers. The World Trade Organization has repeatedly ruled that the tariff and quota systems previously used by Europe to aid its former colonies are illegal and must be dismantled.