Insecurity in Ecuador is a national problem according to the Banana Cluster of Ecuador. The entire country has experienced an increase in extortion, kidnappings, cargo contamination, robberies and other violent crimes. Insecurity has become the biggest challenge to continue producing and exporting bananas.
From left to right: Richard Salazar, Executive Director of Acorbanec; Crnl. Marco Vinicio Narváez, Deputy Commander Zone 8; Eng. José Antonio Hidalgo, Executive Director of AEBE and Coordinator of the Banana and Banana Cluster of Ecuador; Econ. Isis Feraud B., Zonal Chief of the SRI; Leonidas Estrada, President of Agroban.
The Banana Cluster of Ecuador launched the campaign, "Let's give a hand, buying from the right, the future of bananas is taken advantage of." The campaign addresses the problem of irregular marketing that affects the productive development of the main banana-growing provinces; Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro. It aims to raise awareness and motivate actors in the sector to avoid buying inputs or machinery whose origin is dubious and that are marketed without the corresponding sales documents such as invoices. The campaign, in which the National Police and the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) have participated, also encourages people to denounce the irregular channels of this commercialization.
"We want to raise awareness so that the actors in the banana and banana value chain do not buy stolen items or that the origin is not known, without an invoice. Since about 75% of the producing/exporting companies surveyed in the sector reported that they suffered some type of theft, this means that three out of four suffer this type of accident. In addition, within the figures collected in the last quarter, it is estimated that in monetary losses the impact on robberies reaches about $280,000 of what was surveyed, if the trend continues, the losses would amount to about $1,120,000 per year of what was reported, not counting, what is not reported," said Eng. José Antonio Hidalgo, Executive Director of AEBE and Coordinator of the Banana Cluster of Ecuador.
The Deputy Commander of the Metropolitan District of Guayaquil Zone 8, Colonel Marco Narváez, mentioned, "we will have the full support of the National Police and we encourage them to generate the appropriate complaints."
Leonidas Estrada, President of Agroban, added that "These coordinated actions are necessary, motivating through campaigns to get to the root of one of the problems of insecurity, such as the commercialization of stolen products."
Richard Salazar stressed that "The Cluster carries out these coordinated proactive actions" but also called on the authorities to redouble efforts, especially in the commitments that must already be operational, such as the full operation of scanners in ports to address drug trafficking.
Report establishments or people who are dedicated to the purchase and sale of stolen inputs from the banana sector to 1800-DELITOS or to [email protected].