The Banana Hat was born from 32 entrepreneurs from El Oro, which has been exported to Chile, the United States and Europe.

41% of the country’s banana producers are in the province of El Oro, which has an area of ​​45,801 planted hectares, according to official figures. Bananas not only come out of that province in their traditional state as fruit, but with the stems of the plants a group of women from Orense make and have come to export the Banana Hat to various international markets: handmade hats made from banana fiber .

These hats, according to Lorgia Cuenca, administrator of the Agro-artisan Women’s Association (AMA), arose from the need to create a souvenir that identifies the province and has become the star product of the group, made up of 32 women from different cantons of El Oro, who in addition to hats make other products such as the mini Banana Hat, which can be used as key rings or magnets; mini-tapestry and large-scale wall hangings, among other handicrafts.

Fibers with potential in the creation of handicrafts

“The hat was born out of the need to be identified, if there is already a Panama Hat why not have a Banana Hat,” says Cuenca, who recalls that AMA was created in 2008, but the idea of ​​looking for an autochthonous item that identifies to his province before national and international tourists was born 25 years ago when he was a student of Hospitality and Tourism at the Technical University of Machala.

“Our teachers in the practices told us: so many tourists are going to come and what are you going to give them, something representative of the province, of the country; and the truth is that we had nothing to represent us, at least I personally lived with that internal bitterness”. At that time, he indicates that in the stores of souvenirs from his Machala and other towns there were only products that came from other provinces, such as Azuay, Pichincha and Imbabura (Otavalo).

However, the first Banana Hat was born years later, in 2006, when Cuenca took additional training at the Ecuadorian Professional Training Service (Secap), where he worked, and met several women with whom he started AMA.

“We lived with them, we spent afternoons, three hours in the afternoon, we talked about everything, we worked, they were excited about the new alternative that they were going to have to improve their economies and that’s how our association began in 2008,” says the entrepreneur, who He affirms that his Banana Hats have reached the United States, Mexico, Chile, Spain, France, Denmark, England; and in 2022 to the Netherlands, where a businessman ordered 34 hats from the association.

In 2022 they also worked with the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE), a union that commissioned the making of 120 Banana Hats to promote them among its members and also promote their book The banana culinary guide.

“We made a request so that all our main partners, adherents, authorities and the media have a banana fiber hat to promote it and promote the AMA venture. In addition, since last year we have given them free space at our banana convention, this has made banana companies also contact them to make hats for their international clients. We want more enterprises to grow around banana-derived products,” says José Antonio Hidalgo, executive director of AEBE, who anticipates that they will continue to order hats from the entrepreneurs to accompany their national and international deliveries.

Cuenca reveals that the price of the standard hat is $35, but they also make units with thinner fibers that can cost between $80 and $100, always depending on the width of the brim. The artisans dedicate up to three hours a day to make them.

The AMA administrator regrets that the union does not have the resources to pay for an advertising campaign to publicize its products with a greater reach and assures that to date its clients have come through word of mouth advertising that is carried out on its social networks.

“We would like to have more sales than we have.” Now they are looking to become better known in the sector that involves the banana activity: producers, exporters, shipping companies and unions such as AEBE.

‘Spot’ sale of bananas with guarantee support that enter the MAG is a proposal from exporters in the absence of contracts

Regarding the production process of the Banana Hat, Cuenca specifies that only the stems of the recently harvested plants are used: “We separate each pod from that stem, we make strips of these pods and, using a filleting technique, we separate them into three rows. and we let them dry in the sun, we prepare it according to the product that we have to make”.

The raw material is obtained through well-known producers of the association, who give away the stems. However, when there are more than ten, the artisans must pay $30 to $40 to be able to take them home and start working.

The AMA artisans hope that in 2023 they will get more customers and that the Banana Hat will reach all corners of the country and more countries in the world. The daughters of some of the artisans of the association are joining the work, in addition to some husbands who serve as support. (YO)