The Banana Control System (Unibanano), through which fruit export transactions are carried out, has entered the maintenance process due to updates and could present interruptions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) warned last night, August 15.

That system was implemented from 2012 and until last year, as reported by then-minister Bernardo Manzano, it worked with an operating system from 2003. This meant that the system lacked a backup in case of a crash, was easily manipulated from abroad and had no records about who entered, so the need for his replacement arose, after the results of the audit conducted by five technicians from the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) and about 35 from the ministry.

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Meanwhile, the update now announced will take 24 hours, according to the State Portfolio, which claimed that “such maintenance is necessary to guarantee optimal service and improve the efficiency of our operations.”

Regarding possible service interruptions that fruit exporters may have when recording movements in the system, MAG assured that they are taking all necessary measures to minimize inconvenience and complete the update as soon as possible.

Until the morning of this Wednesday, August 16, there were no problems in the system, claims Richard Salazar, executive director of the Association for the Marketing and Export of Bananas of Ecuador (Acorbanec), who assures that the system records all movements of fruit export transactions, which represents a weekly movement of 7,200 container.

This update comes after several complaints filed by the banana sector, which claimed to have discovered irregularities in the system, one of which is with F, which, although it is a mechanism not within the Unibanano system, but Ecuapass, the National Customs Service ( Senae), was used, as confirmed by the authorities, last May to export fruit without going through the registry in Unibanan.

On that occasion, the undersecretary of Musáceas from MAG, Nickola Mora, explained this mechanism used in internal sales called FAS (free on board), the possibility or legal alternative that exporters have in the banana law, through the form 150, which appears within the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae), in order to sell fruit between them and internally in the country, up to 50% of its production, to then export it without the need for registration in Unibanana.

Another irregularity discovered in the system, in October last year, was the existence of 20,000 virtual hectares of bananas registered with Unibanana, which meant 1.2 million virtual boxes per week that “facilitated the manipulation of box supply and demand”. State portfolio. On October 3, a report was filed due to alleged irregularities in the Prosecutor’s Office. The undersecretary for strengthening Musáceas, Paúl Núñez, did so for possible influence peddling, which is punishable by three to five years in prison; however, MAG has not reported on the progress of the investigation to date.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock opened a file on eight banana exporters for allegedly falsifying shipping plans

In addition, by July last year, MAG had initiated administrative proceedings against more than a dozen exporters for alleged falsehoods in more than 100 shipping plans presented in the Unibanano system.

Meanwhile, while this update is in progress, MAG said, “We strongly believe that this update will benefit all Unibanan users in the long run.”