Without consensus, the second meeting of the Banana Advisory Council ended this Tuesday, October 24, which lasted about six hours, from approximately 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, in Guayaquil. In the end, producers and exporters of Ecuador’s second best non-oil and non-mining export could not set a price for a box of fruit for 2024, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) will be in charge. .

The lack of agreement was confirmed by Richard Salazar, executive director of the Banana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec), expressing regret that producers and exporters were unable to agree on a new value. “No one gave in,” Salazar said. As for the process that follows, the leader reminded that according to the Law on Bananas, the State Department has a deadline of seven days from today to announce the new value, which will be the one with which the contracts for the shipment of fruit to the markets will be concluded. signed. international from 01.01.2024.

Producers and exporters will insist, although without major changes in the proposals, on the agreement on the price of bananas in 2024.

On the side of the production sector, the lack of agreement was also confirmed, as stated by Franklin Torres, president of the Federation of Banana Growers of Ecuador (Fenabe) this Tuesday the 24th afternoon. However, the host said, “We’re hoping to hold a meeting to see if we can find a solution,” which could generate a third technical table, but the host said he still wasn’t sure.

This was the second meeting of the Banana Advisory Council, made up of producers and exporters, who failed to reach an agreement even in the first attempt, on October 17. The exporters came to this second meeting with the same attitude as at the previous one, namely that a box of bananas should remain at $6.50, which is the current price for 2023, while the producers gave up their demands in relation to the original proposal. the price of a box of fruit at $8.01 and they arrived this Tuesday the 24th with a price setting position of up to $7.50. In addition, there was an intermediate proposal of $7.25, presented by the Regional Corporation of Ecuadorian Banana Growers (Agroban), which was closer to the request of the manufacturing sector.

Meanwhile, on the export side, there have already been reactions and expectations about the decision that MAG could make. “As an export sector we hope that pricing is technical and not political as it has historically been the case. Second, remember that we are not the only producers and exporters of bananas and if we want to compete in markets that are economically quite saturated, if we want to preserve these markets we cannot set crazy prices,” warned Salazar.

There was no agreement between producers and exporters to determine the price of bananas for 2024, next Tuesday they will try again

For his part, before the resolution to end the meeting without an agreement, Torres had already seen that it was difficult to reach a consensus. The leader confirmed that the position of the export union is “practically the same” as the one initially presented at the first meeting.

They offered us 10 cents more increase, but we can’t find a point of agreement, revealed the head of Fenabe.

The manufacturer’s representative reiterated that maintaining the price of $6.50, as intended by the exporters, does not cover production costs.

Torres assured that the increase requested by his sector represents only 2.5 cents more in each box, which he does not see as a significant increase that would affect international consumers.

He added that to determine the new price, MAG must take into account all the expenses and costs the sector faces, including the next increase in the uniform basic wage, which will rise by $25 more, representing more than $1 in the cost of production. .