shared responsibility plan, which would place the new standard's increased production cost solely on banana producers. In this context, the banana associations continued conversations with the Rainforest Alliance and European Union retailers to resolve the issue. On November 27, 2020, the banana associations called a tripartite roundtable with the Rainforest Alliance and European Union retailers to discuss the new standard and the future development of guidelines for shared responsibility. The Rainforest Alliance was not present at the meeting and banana producers subsequently requested a meeting with the organization's board of directors. The Rainforest Alliance responded by organizing another roundtable on December 18, 2020, to further discuss the new standard with banana sector representatives. Although the Rainforest Alliance affirmed it took into account the comments of all stakeholders involved in the consultation process, especially those of banana growers, banana association representatives again expressed their dissatisfaction with the outcome. In particular, they considered that the way in which the meeting had been organized and managed did not allow for a constructive dialogue to take place. Furthermore, according to the banana associations, the explanations provided by the Rainforest Alliance did not clarify the strategy by which the new standard would be applied, which still failed to fill several gaps around the implementation of the concept of shared responsibility. The Rainforest Alliance's new shared responsibility approach and 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard were set to be fully implemented by mid-2021. See also Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance Fair trade Sustainable coffee Multistakeholder governance model References External links Rainforest Alliance - official website What Does “Rainforest Alliance Certified” Mean? - Mother Earth News magazine Rainforests Forest conservation organizations Forest certification International forestry organizations Nature conservation organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in New York City Environmental organizations established in 1987 1987 establishments in New York (state) Product certification Consumer symbols Ecolabelling