Banana producers propose a minimum price to support the fruit of $ 7.50

The proposal will be exposed on October 22 during the negotiating table that will take place in Guayaquil.

A few days after the development of the negotiating table for fixing the minimum support price of the banana box that will govern by 2022, the banana producing sector exposes its position and proposal, which focuses on a price of $ 7.50, that is, $ 1.25 more than the current one.

The negotiating table will be in the Undersecretariat of Strengthening of Musaceae in Guayaquil, from 10: 00.Publicity

This will be the second negotiation under the new scheme that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) applied since 2020 to set the price of 2021. This new system was introduced, through Executive Decree 1127, in August last year to benefit the closures of contracts that occur between October and December of each year and that govern for the next.

In this way, at the end of October, the producers were able to sign contracts with an average annual weighted price equivalent to the minimum of support of $ 6.25, a lower price than that of 2020, which was $ 6.40, or welcomed a four minimum prices table depending on the season.

This was that the 22 xu banana box (18.14 kg) has a cost of $ 6.90 from week 1 to 16. while from week 17 to 32, a cost of $ 6.60. From week 33 to 42, $ 4.50. And from week 43 to 52, $ 6.40.

Meanwhile, for the negotiation of next Friday, Franklin Torres, president of the National Federation of Bananeros Producers of Ecuador (Fenabe), indicated that the proposal of the sector is carried out according to what determines the law of the current banana, in which it is mentioned that the minimum price of support will be based on a study of the production costs and a reasonable utility.

He added that to establish the national average, a 50 -hectare banana plantation (HA) is considered, with a production of 2,000 boxes per hectare, which corresponds to a medium producer.

In this way, the guild detailed the cost of each item per banana box to support its order. Thus, for example, direct and indirect labor represents $ 1.43 and $ 1.46 respectively; The inputs, $ 2.36; $ 0.17 for depreciation of infrastructure and equipment; $ 0.04 for various materials; $ 0.55 for various taxes and services; $ 1.20 as “20 % reasonable utility”; And finally, $ 0.30, which represents 5 % for unforeseen events.

"Although the minimum support price is not respected, it is necessary to fix it, because it will allow projecting the banana business," Torres said.