After a week, since last September 4, when the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae) announced three measures to refine the Unibanano banana control system – which include the deactivation of the fictitious area code, the review of user profiles and the cancellation code F, which allowed the export of fruit without a contract – the director of this last organization, Ralph Suástegui, revealed this Monday, September 11, that from September 5 of last September until today, 10% of declarations for the export of bananas were rejected by customs .

“At the moment what we have discovered in the monitoring is that about 10% of the export declarations that must refer to or are linked to the Unibanano codes have been rejected by the system,” emphasized the director of Senaa, this Monday, in Guayaquil.

How was the code allegedly used to export boxes of bananas without going through the banana control system? Musaceae Undersecretary and Minister Eduardo Izaguirre explain this

A month before the announcement of the cancellation of this code, the export of bananas, according to the data of the Association of Sellers and Exporters of Bananas of Ecuador (Acorbanec), reached 220.17 million (+ 6.99%) compared to the same period last year, when at this time the export of fruit fell by 7.96% (205.80 million).

For his part, Suástegui clarified that the abolition of the F code is underway and explained the process that the fruit must fulfill in order to be currently exported. He indicated that Ecuapass, which is a Senae system, connects to Ecuador’s Unique Window (VUE) every time someone sends an export declaration, and in turn connects to MAG’s Unibanano system. “The Unibanano system is the one that validates the codes and corresponds to Ecuapass regardless of whether it allows export,” said the head of Senaa.

Regarding whether 10 percent of the total export was achieved through code F, according to the data published by Customs these days, Suástegui clarified that he could not confirm this, but that is what the figures so far show. “Precisely because of the F code, because the system says that these codes are not valid and therefore does not allow the export customs declaration to be transferred,” he added.

Bananas started the second half of 2023 on the right foot, but exports still do not cover autumn 2022.

The existence of this code was first discussed last May when the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Eduardo Izaguirre admitted that irregularities had been observed in the application of this code. At the time, MAG’s Musaceae undersecretary at the time, Nickola Mora, who is currently out of office, explained that this code was contained in Form 150 Senae, which allowed companies to export without going through MAG’s control system. , by writing the letter F in front of the property code.

Mora also revealed at that time that the internal sales mechanism called FAS (free ship side), the option or legal alternative that exporters have in the Banana Law, through the same Senae 150 form, can be replaced with the application of F This mechanism is used by exporters to sell fruit among themselves and internally in the country, up to 50% of their production, and then exported it without the need to register in Unibanan.

However, last August, Senae clarified its authority to export bananas. Customs explained that its responsibility is to receive the documentation that is received in VUE in digital form; which then goes into MAG’s Unibanano system which establishes controls and tasks that are the responsibility and accountability of that ministry.

Then, on that basis, Unibanano sends the control result, and Ecuapass shows it to the user. “The authority and responsibility of Senaa consists of confirming the documentation,” the institution insisted.

This is how the process of modernization of Ecuapasso and Carina goes

Meanwhile, from the export sector, the CEO of Acorbanec, Richard Salazar, revealed that fruit exported through the F code does not represent even 5% of the sector’s total weekly exports, which average 7.5 million boxes. . “We export 7.5 million boxes on average per week, that (code F) does not even represent 5% of the total export of bananas,” the leader calculated.

As for the actual figure of how many bananas remain in the country due to the abolition of the F code, Salazar indicated: “What has to be exported is exported based on contracts and bonds. Whether it stays or not, I can’t tell you, but for now the fruit that has to be exported is coming out.”

Likewise, he classified code F as “an operational failure between the Unibanano and Senae systems that has already been corrected” and reiterated that after its elimination, the sector exports based on what is determined by the banana regulations: “with FAS contracts and operations approved by the ministry. “

On the other hand, the banana production sector indicated that exports should always take place under the protection of the law, according to Franklin Torres, president of the National Federation of Banana Growers (Fenabe). “You cannot have fake exports, fake codes to somehow cover up non-compliance with the law,” criticized Torres.