A Panamanian banana industry leader met with government officials recently in a bid to garner financial support for development projects and new market access applications.

The establishment of a large processing plant was one of the projects proposed by Barú Banana Growers’ Association head Juan Torres when meeting with Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA) general secretary Alberto Arjona.

The Barú Banana Growers' Association represents more than 200 growers of a range of sizes in the country's western region, who collectively grow fruit on around 1,500 hectares of land.

Torres told www.freshfruitportal.com he would like to facilitate the development and growth of producers he represents and to open up new markets.

"We want to help the producers to progress, we want to develop them. Along with that would like to raise their commercial availability, so they have more areas they can sell to."

In Panama, farmers are incentivized to develop their agricultural businesses by means of 'Law 25', which states the government will fund 50% of the total costs of development projects.

"We would like to establish the new processing plant making use of the direct investment that should be provided through Law 25," Torres said.

"Lots of our growers simply don't have the capital they need to increase their production, so what they need is financial support from the government."

Many Panamanian banana producers have been struggling somewhat over recent years, as the prices at which suppliers buy their fruit have remained at more or less the same level.

"We mainly produce our bananas for supermarkets, and so that means that the prices we receive never go up. The prices are always rising for the consumers, but we never see any of that," Torres explained.

"So what we need is investment and capital, and to reach an agreement between producers and the industry regarding prices."

Along with lack of investment, another reason why banana growers in western Panama have not been able to increase production is that there has not been any more land available for new crops.

Fortunately, this is an issue that the government is already helping to resolve, through the funding of new technology which improves cultivation methods and allows for significantly more plants to be grown on the same area of land as before.

That said, the level of investment has not been sufficient for this technology to be used by very many producers.

"It's only been implemented very recently, and most producers are still just using traditional cultivation methods," Torres said.

"It’s only benefitting very few producers at the moment as the country's economic situation simply will not allow it."

Despite how slowly progress is being made with government investment, Torres says he and the banana producers he represents are optimistic about their future.

"We need to consider our options, and we still haven't come to a final solution yet. At the moment we don't have funds, we don’t have anything. We will welcome whatever comes our way to support our producers.

"The producers are very optimistic and very happy with this project for the processing plant we presented. If the government can help, that would be great. The government has seen that we are having problems, and they will support us and help us."

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