Eight markets bought less bananas from Ecuador, but the United States bought more

Fruit exports have dropped 3.05% from January to May.

Countries from the European Union (EU) bloc, Russia, the Middle East, East Asia, the United Kingdom, Oceania, EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Canada bought fewer bananas from Ecuador during the first five months of the year.

The declines in those markets were from 4.12% to 32.61%. The contraction in purchases in some of these countries is associated with the effects of COVID-19 on the economies, oil prices and even an increase in tariffs.

The decline in those countries was reflected in total sales of the fruit. According to data from the Banana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec), total banana exports reached 170.44 million boxes in the five-month period, which is 3.05% less than what was exported in the same period of 2020.

During this period, there is a slight decrease in exports of the 22XU box by 0.70% and in the 208 boxes by 23.15%, due to the reduction in exports to East Asia and the Middle East. There is also a drop in organic banana exports of 4.16%. But the Red Banana presents an increase of 33.85% and the Baby Banana an increase of 10.83%.

Contrary to what happened with the reduction of exports in some markets, others showed growth driven by certain factors. Fruit exports report growth in markets such as Africa with 60.19%, the United States with 12.85%, Eastern Europe with 30.16%, and the Southern Cone with 1.68%.

18.51 million boxes of bananas were sent to the United States and this increase was mainly due to Ecuador taking advantage of spaces left by Central American countries. Honduras and Guatemala are experiencing damage to banana plantations due to a hurricane that hit those areas some time ago, explained Richard Salazar, executive director of Acorbanec.

Within the top 5 of the largest exporters are Ubesa (Dole), with a share of 9.65%; Reybanpac, with 5.99%; Frutadeli, 4.53%; Comersur, with 3.82%, and Agzulasa, 3.07%.

But the export sector not only faces a contraction in its orders, but also logistical problems that arise globally for the transportation of fruit. And that is linked to the lack of containers and shipping spaces that has been reflected more strongly since mid-April.

Exporters report that this situation could be caused by congestion in important ports, especially in China, and the change of routes by shipping companies to serve markets that allow them to come and go full. This has caused a lack of container replacement.

On the other hand, there is also a greater demand for containers reefer in China due to the increase in imports of pork and beef. Acorbanec indicated that all these situations have not only generated a shortage of containers, but also increases in shipping freight.

Salazar indicated that the lack of shipping spaces means that more growth cannot be achieved in African and Middle Eastern countries.

Internally, the banana sector is working with the Ecuadorian Government and regional authorities to contain the entry of fusarium race 4, which has already been detected in Colombia and Peru.

Just last week, the banana cluster met with the secretary of the CAN, Jorge Hernando Pedraza, to analyze this problem. The organization ratified the commitment to continue working together with the Andean governments and the productive sector to protect the musaceae chain and highlighted the Secretariat's proposal to implement a Permanent Technical Monitoring and Surveillance Center on fusarium.

At this meeting, joint and cooperative actions were agreed on, focused on strengthening contingency plans, promoting and disseminating biosafety measures in ports, airports, farms and border crossings, as well as prevention training.