After a year and a half and with an investment of $1.5 million, the Hotel Colón in Salinas reopened its doors

Ten Ecuadorian companies were part of the Pavilion of Ecuador, with support from Corpei.

Pandemia and war between Russia and Ukraine had some effect on the participation of producers and buyers at the Fruit Logistics Fair, which was held these days in Berlin, but Ecuador did have a good presence and took advantage of contacts to reactivate international trade of agricultural products, especially the banana.

The banana banana, Palmar-Ecuador Corporation, Export Fruit Cadena, Export Jaime, Ginafruit and Marplantis were part of the fair. In addition to Terrasol, which more than bananas offers other products such as banana and pineapple, and service companies, logistics, insurance and fruit maturation: Logistics Alliance TDGE S. A., Insurance Trust and Cold Energy.

In total there were ten Ecuadorian companies in the Pavilion of Ecuador, coordinated and led by Corpei for more than 16 years. The Corpei delegation was made up of the manager of Corpei Capital, Luis Montoya Vega, and the planner of the Ecuadorian presence in this pavilion, Mary Francis Andrade.

Although some exporters decided not to travel, because of the Covid that affected Europe at the beginning of the year, and for the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Ecuadorian presence "has been successful and those who were encouraged to go have been able to show their excellent products," Andrade said.

Although Russia is not Ginafruit market, its manager Hugo Castro knows that towards the port of St. Petersburg, the banana burden reached 2.5 million boxes and now half or less loaded. From there the fruit has always been distributed to other border countries with Russia. "There are two shipping companies that are working towards that destination, with approximately half a million each. There is no country or port that can absorb the difference, and the most serious thing is that there are no containers to redirect it," he explains. With this crisis, the container spaces were reversed by shipping companies to other products of other latitudes.

Export Jaime served "to establish meetings with customers and some new ones with whom they have met," said Sara Aguirre, who as a effect of the COVID and now of the war conflict believes that the banana trade has been depressed. "We have lowered the volume a bit, but we have not stopped selling." His company sends bananas to China, the Middle East and Argentina.

Meanwhile, the organic bananas that Galo Molina offers is in a "quite stable" condition, after raising a price drop just motivated by logistics problems in the absence of containers.

"There are European clients who have not been able to come due to work issues, due to the changes of date of the fair that motivated the COVID." Usually, the Logistics Fruit takes place in February, but this year it had to move in date. That is why the concurrence of the fair has been a bit slow, which was predictable. ”

The fair took place from April 5 to 7. The inauguration of the Ecuadorian pavilion was carried out by the Minister of Agriculture, Pedro Álava, and the ambassador of Ecuador in Germany, Verónica Bustamante.