The agricultural corporation Banagreen was created with the purpose of helping small and medium banana producers to sell their products in a profitable manner while looking after the environment. With a production style that takes soil condition and use of natural resources into account, the firm exports considerable volumes of bananas to the United States and Europe.
"We are an association of 20 producers in the province of El Oro, Ecuador; some with the Global Gap certification and others in the process of obtaining one," explained the engineer José Uyaguari. "We have some large producers, but the majority are small." Together, the plantations take around 1,500 hectares and produce enough fruit to export 15 containers to the United States and 10 containers to Europe every week; they are also considering entering the Swiss market in the future.
We are searching for new markets, not only for banana exports, but also for other crops. The main goal is to help small producers in reducing their production costs while supporting sustainable agriculture and improving the environment.
We have a group of experts in phytosanitary, nutritional, administrative and business areas to grant growers with the needed technological tools to obtain high productivity at a low cost. We are establishing partnerships with laboratories and firms, both to help them in obtaining a Global Gap certification and to supply them with low-cost agricultural products that allow for a good traceability of the production.
"There are exporting firms which are only interested in shipping the fruit and nothing else," said Uyaguari. "We wished to bring small growers together. They can produce bananas in a profitable manner, while obtaining easily traceable products and ensuring a good use of agro-chemicals.
"We are trying to grow organic products," said Uyaguari, "although we are not certified. The reason for this is because black sigatoka makes it almost necessary to use products that go against organic production regulations," but in the long term the firm wishes to obtain an organic and a fairtrade certification.
For more information:
José Uyaguari
Banagreen
+593 985913440
