Starting next week, Agroban, the Corporation of Ecuadorian Banana Producers, will begin a trial export period to send Ecuadorian bananas to China.
According to Gustavo Marun, the entity's representative, this has been the result of a nearly six-month negotiation and, if quality can be maintained, a major contract with a Chinese state company would be achieved.
The trial period consists of shipments of five containers for a period of five weeks. Then, in January next year, producers will try to reach an agreement to start exporting 30 containers of bananas per week.
Marun said the fruit would travel to China by boat for approximately 35 days, whereas it only takes them 25 days to send them to Europe.
He stressed that this business was important as it was a direct sale by the banana producers (Agroban brings together some 40 medium and large companies) to the consumers; leaving out the middleman. Small associations such as Cerro Azul and El Guabo have already implemented this model.
According to figures from the Central Bank, up to September this year, 8.71 million dollars in Cavendish Valery bananas have been exported to China. That is, 1.81% of Ecuador's total sales to that country in the first nine months of the year.
Source: El Universo