Banana Producers Will Require A Support Contract To Export

Today begins the operations that will control Ecuador’s banana exports, as long as they have a back-up contract. This action will take place in the cities of Puerto Bolivar (El Oro) and Guayaquil.

The aim is to have companies to submit their purchase contracts to their producers and immediately pay the official value of the product in the Central Bank.

Rafael Guerrero, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAGAP), said the companies have already been notified about the requirement of contracts at the time of selling the fruit abroad.

Guerrero said yesterday: “Today we will send another communication to the port managers to suspend the banana’s exportation to the companies that don’t submit the contracts to purchase the fruit. If they don’t do this the product won’t leave the port”

The weekly export is around 5.5 million of crates (62% are shipped from Guayaquil). Only 65% of the exported product recorded export contracts.

The Director of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE), Eduardo Ledesma, explained that the reason why exporters do not want to sign is because product prices are too high. Despite this, they will continue having contracts with shipping companies. Ledesma ensures that the price will decrease in the coming weeks because of the fall in markets of Russia and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, small scale banana producers in El Oro  are getting associated to sign contracts with volumes from 7,000 crates a week to the European Union, Russia and Argentina.