Agroban, the Corporation of Ecuadorean Banana Producers, has announced that it is to commence trial shipments of bananas to Ecuador from next week. Five weekly containers will be shipped for the first five weeks, rising to a potential 30 containers a week from January 2014.
Agroban’s Gustavo Marún said if the trial is successful, it could result in the organisation being awarded a contract to supply a state-owned Chinese distributor. As the fruit will be on the boat for 35 days (compared to 25 days for shipments to Europe), quality on arrival will be carefully assessed as the trial progresses, Marún said.
He told El Universo that the deal was significant because it enabled producers to access the Chinese market directly, without going through intermediaries. This model is already being used by some small producer associations such as Cerro Azul and El Guabo.
According to figures from Ecuador’s Central Bank, US$8.71m of bananas were shipped from Ecuador to China in the first nine months of 2013.
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