Europe Edition
A total of 400 containers of bananas failed to be exported from Puerto Bolívar, El Oro province, between September 9 and 10. During those days, tugboats that were working on a vessel were extorted by criminal gangs, which caused a delay in the departure of the banana cargo. These actions affected the quality of the product and its competitiveness, by incurring additional costs associated with unforeseen movements in the loading of the fruit.
Due to security and logistics problems, the 400 containers had to be transferred to the Port of Guayaquil to be exported. The Corporation of Exporting Guilds of Ecuador (Cordex) warns that the export sector registers daily insecurity alerts due to extortion, raids on properties, assaults and robberies.
So far this year, the main export products have registered more than 500 criminal incidents. In addition, economic losses due to insecurity exceed USD 5 million.
Source: ecuadortimes.net
