While Ecuadorian banana growers and exporters are positive about the crop at the moment, the threat of an El Niño phenomenon has forced industry players to work together to reduce its possible impacts.

Regional Ecuadorian Banana Growers' Corporation (AGROBAN) executive director Manuel Romero told www.freshfruitportal.com activities were going well in the country's plantations, with expectations to ship a large quantity of bananas this year.

"In relation to the export estimate for this year, we think Ecuador will reach at least its maximum historical level of around 285 million boxes. This implies that the crop situation is adequate," Romero said.

Despite the sector's joy at this possibility, Romero emphasized it could not be complacent and must have El Niño in mind, as it has the potential to significantly damage banana plantations.

"The El Niño phenomenon's presence is definitely developing...and could affect the whole Ecuadorian coast and the main banana-growing provinces, which are Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro," he said.

"In a way the authorities are taking appropriate action, such as precautions that mean looking at the issue of holding in rivers, with walls and the rest of it, in such a way that the presence of El Niño means less impact on agriculture."

The executive said that at the association level, the industry was internally cleaning drainage canals, with pumping stations in optimal conditions to evacuate excess water.

Export challenges

When asked about banana exports, Romero said the main challenge had been resolving logistical problems.

"I understand that exports are going very well, but there are still certain logistical issues that have to do with transit times to destination markets...ship transit times that have to improve so that we can arrive at the estimated times," he said.

"In week 18, particularly, AGROBAN undertook an export to China - something that we had come do be doing in a permanent way - and the estimated time in transit was 32-25 days, but finally, because of shipping delays the fruit arrived in 60 days."

He said anti-narcotics inspections had also caused delays and led to problems for one exporting ship this year.

"We had a coordination problem with the inspection. This was a problem that affected us very seriously, and it was erroneous information that anti-narcotics authorities took which meant that the programmed inspection was done on the same day as the vessel's departure," he said.

"This effectively meant that our containers stayed and couldn't be exported.

"We are making the respective complaint with the right authorities because that was definitely uncoordinated, and it's not possible that this can occur."

Photo: Fotolia, Natika

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