Both the production and export sectors support the measures announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae) to clean up banana exports, which include the deactivation of the fictitious reference number, the review of user profiles and the abolition of the F code, which allowed the export of the fruit without going through the registration in the banana control system.

And they also give their suggestions. On the one hand, a certain flexibility is requested in the application of the measure, because more than 2.5 million crates are without a contract, and on the other hand, it is indicated that legal mechanisms must be sought that will allow this fruit to go out. Well, the idea is that not even a box remains banana.

The Ministry of Agriculture is taking three measures to refine banana exports, code F has been eliminated

The Executive Director of the Association for Marketing and Export of Bananas (Acorbanec) Richard Salazar indicated that for two years they have been asking the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to change this computer system for software again, “precisely because of these vulnerabilities that occurred and for whose failures at the end of the day only the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible”. He added: “We celebrate this measure because it is a way to be fair and formalize the whole sector.”

Likewise, it is important for this manager to establish that this is the beginning of several actions. He mentioned “the fairness of the banana law, because the reality is that 55% of the world’s banana sales take place under the scheme stains, i.e. cash and without contract. The Banana Law does not consider this modality of purchase and sale,” and the fact that this is not reflected in the regulations creates a distortion.

In this context, “it is sold informally and that is why it must be formalized, legal mechanisms must be sought for that fruit to go out, because the idea is that the box of bananas does not remain and that what is exported must be formally exported”, he added.

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On the other hand, Franklin Torres, president of the National Federation of Bananas (Fenabe), considers MAG’s decision correct, but calls for some flexibility in applying the measure because “more than 2 and a half million boxes must be taken into account.” that they are without a contract,” he said.

Torres pointed out that this request was made a long time ago due to the transparency of fruit marketing. “Producers previously denounced how our rights were violated by the existence of these false codes of these fictitious farms and hectares that somehow illegally competed with our properly established farms,” ​​he emphasized.

In addition, it is hoped that the MAG will act directly in the investigation to find out who are the authors of this illegality, who benefited and who was harmed by this illegal trade, in order to obtain monetary compensation from the Government.

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On the other hand, Jose Antonio Hidalgo, executive director of the Association of Ecuadorian Banana Exporters (AEBE), indicated that he was in favor of a formality: “We asked the Ministry of Agriculture to update the system from 2020 and it had to be done now.”

Before the end of the Government, he added, the Unibanano system must be updated and information transferred between the Tax Administration (SR) and Senaa, precisely in order to look for the formality of the sector. “There is no need to wait for it to be updated, the authorities can cross-reference the information and act before announcing any scheme and presenting the appropriate legal justifications or anomalies that exist.”