The banana industry is not experiencing one of its best moments in the Canary Islands. Beyond the effects usually caused by the summer season, the value of bananas, the main fruit of the Islands, whose popularity tends to decrease in July and August due to the closure of schools and the appeal of seasonal products such as watermelons and melons, has also fallen. extremely in recent months.
From the Canary Islands Banana Producers Association (Asprocan) The decrease in the price of fruit exported to the Peninsula is estimated at 26 percent. The fruit, which was on average 95 cents before summer, is now sold for 70 cents per kilo.. This issue stems from a conflict between manufacturers such as Friends of the Banana and For a Fair Price platforms and Asprocan, who remain divided over ideas to control the bleeding in the industry.
There is no agreement among banana growers even on specifying the origin of the low prices. From Asprocan realize how little they pay for bananas in response to overproduction in the warmer months. According to his manager Sergio Cáceres, The one and a half degree increase in temperatures in the Islands in July and August facilitated fruit production.. As a result, the market has put 268 million kilos of bananas into circulation so far this year, whereas the norm for the last decade was a not inconsiderable 235 million kilos at this time of year. Total, Fruit surplus is 33 million kilos, i.e. 14% more. In this way, if there were already more bananas than demanded before the hot spells, high temperatures increased the problem.
distribution chain
Opinions of producers, such as those who have joined the platform Banana Friends This is very different. One of its members, Jorge Eulogio Hernández, believes: The root of the low prices is in the distribution chain, and he points directly to Asprocan for “not operating professionally or transparently” in this regard.. “We farmers just buy the bananas and give them to the packer who sends them to the Peninsula. There is a contract, an agreement with the distribution chain where the price is determined. That’s right, promotions are made,” he explains.
Likewise, Hernández assures that he “shook” when he heard Domingo Martín Ortega, president of the Association of Banana Producers Organizations of the Canary Islands, talk about “a bad organization of producers” and “blamed” them for not doing so. He had previously accomplished the banana task of eliminating excess production. Banana Friends estimate that 97 billion kilos of fruit have been “thrown away” in the last 12 years.
Market loss and exorbitant prices
This week, the same platform sent a document titled “To the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands. Brief Analysis of the Banana Industry and Some Suggestions for Improvement He also blames bananas for the current price alarm. “In the first half of 2023, 211,212 tons of bananas entered the market. There were 205,668 tons of bananas in the Canary Islands. We lost the market while experiencing catastrophic prices.”can be read in the document.
In the midst of this crisis, Hernández states: Traditional banana producers start charging two cents per kiloThose who grow organic bananas (as in their case) receive only 60 cents compared to the usual euro; which is “a very low price for production costs”. All this leads him to doubt the “generation change in the countryside”; because it is “not profitable” for a teenager to start growing bananas, which is only available to those “living on assistance.”
banana bites
The elimination of bananas in order to stop the decline in prices has been a headache for Canarian banana growers for years. The solution to not reaching this extreme level is in the platforms. To eliminate the banana exception in the Food Chain for Banana Friends and Fair Price ActIt was created with the aim of forcing farmers to pay production costs. With this idea, a demonstration will be held this Saturday at 11:00 in front of La Palma City Hall. However, Asprocan believes that the Chain Law “does not guarantee that the product will be received” and that binding the industry to it “will force cooperatives to bear penalties of millions of dollars, which will lead to irreparable losses.”.
To know different positions, Sources from the Ministry of Agriculture also confirmed to this newspaper that they will meet with Asprocan at the end of the month and help the producers. demanding it. “He has the tendency and will to mediate,” they said.