
However, the lowest price that producers had to work with was $2.10 in week 31. The price for contracted producers ranged from $4 to $ 4.6 with a quota restriction every week.
"Producing a box of bananas costs around $5.50, so it's easy to imagine the losses faced by producers when prices are so low. Luckily, we only had a period of 11 weeks with very low prices. Prices are improving, for example, in week 44 they stood at around $8 to 8.50. At the moment, they are $9 and we hope they'll be close to $10 by the end the year."

Daniel has worked for years in the banana sector, but has been working as an independent consultant for the past 2 years. "I work with different producers and it is terrible to see them in such complicated situations. It's all due to the minimum support price that the Government set for the banana sector."

The country benefits from having the US dollar as its currency since 2000. "Ecuador is the only country in Latin America that has the dollar as its currency. That's good for business because it's a stable currency. Often, countries suffer from a bad exchange rate. However, producers can have large losses if they don't work with contracts and programs. For example, I am working with a producer who lost about $ 70,000 last year."

Ecuador
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