Ecuadorian Banana Exporters’ Association (AEBE) president Eduardo Ledesma says two government actions have helped stave off a potential strike in the world's leading producing country for the tropical fruit. 

Growers were threatening to walk off the fields in response to plummeting banana prices.

Ledesma gave Fresh Fruit Portal his take on the nuanced issue, with producer concerns somewhat alleviated for the time being.

"It involves a group of growers and exporters who did not close contracts at the start of the year (between January and April) when there was greater demand for bananas," he said.

"During that time they benefit from having higher prices. The problem is afterwards in the low season when demand in international markets declines because other fruits appears, and prices fall.

"The people who didn't sign contracts and didn't save the surplus values obtained, because they spent them, obviously can't get by."

He said growers who did sign contracts haven't had this problem, while the government has stepped in to help those who are in a tough situation.

"Thankfully the government didn't declare an emergency but they did offer two things," he says.

The first of these is that financiers need to establish convenient time periods for repayments that take stock of each grower's reality, while secondly the government has emphasized that by law there are guarantees that those who have signed contracts that are still valid will be paid at the official price per banana box. 

"The problem with small growers who are not productive but speculative is that they don't sign contracts because they want to sell with spot pricing, and this year the spot price fell like never before," Ledesma said.

"They thought that 2017 would be the same as 2016, when the average price was above the price paid under contract.

"The lack of formality in business transactions hurts everyone in Ecuador, because the same fruit arrives in the markets, the same destination, but with notable price differences. We have to avoid this happening because the one who loses greatly is the country."

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