Although Ecuador was not affected by the El Niño phenomenon, the current weather conditions have caused a drop in the productivity and availability of bananas from local producers. "The situation is difficult for many growers who have been unable to fulfil the contracts they signed with export companies. Adjustments have had to be made to the exportable volumes to be able to meet (to the greatest extent) the needs of our clients abroad, who, in turn, also have agreements with their own customers," affirmed Manuel Romero, of Agroban.
"In recent weeks, the temperatures during the day and night have caused problems of stress in plants, so we have a lower productivity and bunches of lower weight. We believe that this situation will not change in the coming weeks; we are talking about a 25% to 30% drop in productivity. Looking at the number of bunches, we don't think the fruit's availability will improve, so we have to work with what we have," affirms the representative.
If to this we add certain problems caused by natural phenomena in competing countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Guatemala, it is expected that both the demand and prices of Ecuadorian fruit will increase. "While the low production has so far been relatively offset by the price increase, it is still a blow to small producers. Fortunately, Ecuador reaches more than 30 different destinations, so we are not concentrated in a few markets, which makes our business opportunities that much greater," concluded the spokesperson.
