'Unfair' banana tariff helps fill tax coffers

Bananas are being

discriminated against at the

Km4 one stop border post on the

Mozambican side of the border.

While botanists classify banana

as a fruit – more specifically a

berry produced by herbaceous

plants in the Musa genus –

Mozambican customs treat it

differently to citrus, another fruit.

This is highlighted in a

US Agency for International

Development (USAid)-funded

study on the Km4 border post

near Ressano Garcia.

It points out the difference in

treatment between citrus fruit

and bananas.

Citrus fruit is included in the

tariff schedules of the Kudumba

and Km4 (GT) terminal

management’s goods in transit

category, with a tariff of 1 008

metical (R217) per truck.

Banana is classified as an

export product, and despite both

products belonging to the fruit

category, the tariff charged is

2 160 metical/truck (R464) – or

twice as expensive.

This difference in tariffs

is also applicable to parking

tariffs.

Trucks carrying bananas pay

US$ 1.9/ton, while trucks piled

with citrus fruit pay US$0.75/

ton.

In the process the Mozambican

authorities harvest rich pickings

from the country’s own banana

growers.

Mozambique exports

approximately 100 000 tons of

bananas to South Africa each

year, which equates to around

four thousand trucks moving

through Km4, or around 8 511

million metical in additional

taxes.

Fixing tariffs charged on the

export of bananas at the same

level as those practised for

citrus fruit in transit, would

reduce the export costs of

bananas by approximately 50%,

according to the authors of the

report.

They point out that the tariffs

are detrimental to Mozambican

producers and exporters.

“The banana industry

is restarting its growth. A

penalising tariff structure

does not encourage domestic

production and removes

competitiveness from the

banana value chain.

“Thus, it is recommended that

the possibility of fixing similar

tariffs (to citrus) be considered,

thereby returning the

competitiveness to the export of

bananas to the South African

market,” says the report.