The UPBM is an interesting example of a producers’ organisation (PO) that is efficiently organised and has a well thought-out marketing strategy for its own market segment. This is a truly dynamic economic entity which has laid down its own marketing rules and has a framework for consultation with the traders involved.
To cope with the challenges in marketing and the intensification of banana production (low prices set by buyers, the high cost of maintenance and management of plantations), the producers began to come together in 1995, with the organisation of group activities, and as the creation of clusters continued, a marketing system was put in place.
As a first step, the producers tried themselves to send by two loads of bananas to Kankan, but this trial was unsuccessful because traders in Kankan did not let them penetrate their market. Farmers learned lessons from this trial and decided to organise the marketing of bananas in partnership with local traders. The farmers set a date for sales and agreed on a price and the tonnage with the buyers in Macenta. Today, this has resulted in a kind of regular mini commodities exchange for the marketing of bananas from Macenta in which there is price negotiation and programming of sales between producers and traders in Conakry.
Two principles underlie this system of commercialisation in Conakry: the union works with traders who agree to negotiate a fixed price that can be periodically revised (in practice 2-3 times per year), depending on market conditions and transportation costs, and in turn the producer groups offer quantities that are equivalent to truckloads of 20-25 t at agreed periods and terms.
To enable this system to work, it has been constructed around different entities:
- a price harmonisation / negotiation body where the producers’ union and the traders’ association get together to agree banana prices;
- a commission in charge of programming harvests, where sales are scheduled weekly in accordance with the banana harvest timetable and as agreed upon by the producers’ union and traders’ association;
- a producer-controlled system for weighing in the presence of traders;
- an oversight committee.
More recently, the producer members of the union have sought other outlets in Guinea and Mali and have made contacts in Senegal.
