3 Different Industries are Affected by Banana Crisis

Banana collateral industries are affected

Banana collateral industries are suffering because of the global crisis losses that caused the export of the fruit to drop by more than one million crates in recent weeks.

The situation has led to an aggressive effect on three production lines: cardboard, plastic and sale of fungicides that in the last month fell by 30%.

Cartonera Procarsa S.A. (cardboard industry), for example, no longer works at the same pace that it did last year, as the weak demand of cardboard by the banana industry affected the production volume which descended to 700 000 crates per week (they used to produced a million).

This situation has been worsening over the past four weeks, says Geovanny Coello, President of the Cardboard Association of Ecuador, which includes seven companies in the country. These companies, he explains, are forced to bear the brunt of the crisis, “because 70 percent of the 570 tons of paper used per year for the production of cardboard are destined for the export of bananas” he says.

Plastic industry also feel the effect of the drop in shipments. Their sales have fallen by a third party as their product is used to protect the fruit that leaves the country.

Cecilio Jalil, president of the Association of the banana industry in Ecuador, argues that the impact reaches other areas. “It also affects other shipping service providers as their number of shipments decreases, the same thing happens with transportation and the sale of fungicides,” he says.

Source: Daily Expreso