The Dominican Republic's plantain, or banano, industry is facing several setbacks, resulting in a decline in small, independent producers and a 44% drop in exports over the past three years. 

Both the president and executive director of the Dominican Republic’s Association of Banano Producers, ADOBANANO, told Freshfruitportal.com that the three main culprits behind the Dominican Republic's main agricultural export decline are increasing production costs, a decrease in foreign manual labor, and climate change. 

ADOBANANO is a non-profit organization comprising Dominican plantain associations, producers, and exporters.  

"We're made up of 1,300 plantain growers who produce around 390 containers weekly," said Gil Blas Martínez, ADOBANANO's President. "Our industry has seen a decrease in exports from $363 million to $202 million in only three years."

ADOBANANO’s executive director, Martín Eduardo Peña Taveras, said one of the major challenges is that the processes required to export plantains to the European Union—the country’s leading importer—have become increasingly expensive. These price hikes are hurting small producers.

“The strength of the Dominican Republic’s plantain industry is the organic plantain,” he said. “Big organizations are the leaders in conventional plantain production. Our niche is organic bananas.”

“Production costs have increased around 31% to 35%, and 70% of our producers are small producers. That means they only plant around 5 to 10 hectares,” Peña Taveras said. “Right now, production is around 1.2 to 1.5 boxes. The ideal is 2.5 boxes.”

According to the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the new EU Organic Regulation 2018/848 is the first major organic regulation to include group certification as part of the rule.

The new requirements for Groups of Operators include having legal personality, an internal control system, no more than 2,000 members, stricter audits, and a land ownership limit of five hectares per member.

Farmers with less than five hectares of total agricultural land can still be members of a group if their annual organic turnover is below €25,000.

This means, according to Blas Martínez, that if a producer owns 10 hectares—as he does—they can no longer be part of an association and must be certified independently.

“That means that, as the owner of more than five hectares, every year I have to find $1,500 to $2,000 three times a year, since that's how many times we’re audited. That’s around $4,000 to $6,000 just to be able to export to the European Union,” he said.

He emphasized that small organic plantain producers are being hit the hardest by these regulations.

“In 2021, we were 1,800 producers. Now there are only 1,300,” he said. “The plantations are still there, but the small producers are disappearing. That means exporters and large plantations are swallowing smaller producers.”

On the issue of climate change, Peña Taveras noted that it’s not only about extreme weather events, but also rising temperatures.

“The temperature has been around 36 to 38 degrees Celsius in Valverde and Montecristi, where most of the plantain production is,” he explained. “But the ideal maximum temperature for proper development is 34 degrees. The change stresses the plant, causes early maturation, and has worsened the spread of a pest, Phyllocoptruta musae, that affects new plant growth and productivity.”

Peña Taveras also addressed the labor shortage due to issues with migrant regularization. He said a banana field needs at least two field workers per hectare.

“Dominicans are no longer doing the harvesting work in plantain fields, so we have to use foreign labor. Many may lack legal documentation or may not be able to renew it,” he said. “In the last two months, the situation has worsened. Foreign workers have decided to leave, and many have been deported. That’s led to a lack of manual labor in the field.”

“We advocate for the standardization of immigration and the granting of worker visas to foreign workers. The plantain industry has asked the government to issue around 15,000 visas,” he added.

Both ADOBANANO’s president and executive director said the only way to prevent further industry decline is to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Dominican government to ensure support for plantain growers.

“There’s a plan originally drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, and ADOBANANO has added some initiatives and goals,” Peña Taveras said. “We believe it must be a joint effort to bring change.”

“The plan includes several strategic goals to support growers. Some of them are technical and financial assistance, immigration regularization for laborers, and technological improvements to address disease and plantation renewal,” he added. “But this has to be done in coordination with national agencies and the Dominican leadership.”

*Photos courtesy of ADOBANANO