SCB bananas

Bananas exported by Ivory Coast's Société de Culture Bananière, part of Compagnie Fruitière

Intense fighting in Ivory Coast, West Africa, has resulted in a virtual shutdown of the country's port and logistics network, preventing fresh produce exports including pineapples, bananas and papayas from leaving the country.

According to a number of sources, access to the country's main port of Abidjan has been suspended indefinitely, with reefer vessels unable to dock and collect fruit.

Philippe Mavel of OCAB, the central organisation of banana and pineapple exporter-producers in Ivory Coast, described the situation as 'very serious' and revealed that it was impossible to predict when it might improve.

'The country is in crisis,' he told Eurofruit. 'No ships are coming to the port and nothing has been exported since the end of last week.'

He added: 'The economy has come to a standstill. These are not protests. This is a real battle, and no one can say when the situation may get better.'

A leading Italian importer commented: 'As far as fruit exports are concerned, Ivory Coast is closed. We're hearing about several containerloads which have been left stranded in Abidjan.'

French company Compagnie Fruitière, which dominates fruit production and exports in Ivory Coast, declined to comment on the ongoing disruption.

It is understood that ships belonging to the company sailing to Ivory Coast from Ghana have been unable to call at Abidjan.

Less than a decade ago, Ivory Coast was one of the world's leading pineapple producers – second only to Costa Rica according to the United Nations – but production of the fruit has slumped in recent years.

Last year, OCAB-registered producers in the Ivory Coast exported 31,914 tonnes of pineapples alongside 248,021 tonnes of bananas.

However, those figures are considerably down on levels seen at the start of the decade.

In 2002, the country's fresh pineapple export business amounted to around 190,000 tonnes, but since then a major economic crisis has severely hampered small-scale producers.

The continued commercial success of the Extra Sweet pineapple variety, meanwhile, which is now widespread in Latin America, has also had a detrimental impact on sales of the Smooth Cayenne variety prevalent in Ivory Coast.

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