The Regional Agreement for Shared Responsibility signed in Guayaquil on October 27 by banana producers and exporters from Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica is already giving results.
Through this agreement, the countries asked European, British and American supermarkets to review the prices of the banana box in accordance with the international reality of increasing global costs and the requirements to achieve sustainability.
This Friday, the Banana Cluster of Ecuador highlighted initiatives of three companies in the North American market that have accepted the request made by producers and exporters.
For example, Fresh Del Monte announced its price increase by $ 0.05 per pound of fruit, Dole increased by $ 1.61 per box and Fyffes did so by $ 1.60 per box for conventional bananas.
The United States is the fourth destination for Ecuadorian fruit worldwide. From January to September, 28.6 million boxes were exported to that destination, which represented 10.17% of total fruit exports, which in that period reached 281.95 million boxes.
“We expect similar reactions from the other markets to compensate for the global situation in accordance with the implications of the different particularities that correspond to each of these markets; Only in this way will it be possible to maintain the true social and environmental objective that is sought with banana production, ”said the Banana Cluster, which assured that input costs have risen between 30% and 45% in the banana industry. For example, in fertilizers from 35% to 45%, cardboard at 30% and plastic at 45%.
In addition, he urged consumers, supermarkets, importers and all those who make up the chain to act consistently aware of the impact caused by the different externalities and whose costs cannot be borne solely by producers but must be shared by all members of market chain, since, if the necessary price increase does not occur, the sustainability of the banana will be threatened. (I)