Prices and Sigatoka High Risk for Banana Industry, says Alvaro Noboa

Empresario Ecuatoriano, Álvaro Noboa

Alvaro Noboa, pre-presidential candidate in Ecuador, has once again raised an voice of alert against the imminent collapse that would affect the local banana industry in a few months.

“Millions of boxes of bananas are being purchased by no more than $ 2.50 per box, rather than the official price of $ 5.50 (…) This makes banana plantations cannot fumigate against sigatoka so they replete of this disease, which make them impossible to fertilize. If case this situation continues, hundreds of thousands of families will be unemployed in the coming weeks with the collapse of the banana industry.”

Noboa called on the Chief of State and the Minister of Agriculture in order to monitor the compliance with the law and require the payment of the official price. “The time is now, after 10 weeks it will be too late,” he said. (FL)