lorax

Ecuador vindicated by the WTO on EU Banana Import Tariffs

It only took 10 years, but

Good for Ecuador, I say, and good for cheaper Nanners in the EU.

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I speak for the trees.

Dean W.

lorax,

Good for Ecuador!

Dean

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Dean

island cassie

Hooray for all the struggling nana-growers - they deserve to succeed against the big cartels!

Cassie

mskitty38583

yes they do. they deserve the best for their families just like everyone else is entitled to. however i talked to my sister the other day and there is talk among the agriculture people in middle florida that told her fience, that banana prices are about to explode....wonder if it has anything to do with this article? my thinking is that it does. now my sister is talking about getting a few nana trees to grow her own. i told her if she decides to i have a few "suppliers" she can talk to. wink, wink,nudge,nudge.

p.s. the prices of nanas dosent bother me...i pay .89 a lb for organic bananas anyway..whats .60+ more a lb. im gonna buy them anyways. i gots to have nanas.

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"kokomo" beach boys:

lorax

Ms. Kitty, I can only speak to the Ecuadoran situation, but since the US has no real tariffs on the bananas coming from Ecuador it's likely that this decision has put your costs up a little; however the thing that's probably made them skyrocket like that is the failure due to flooding of a large percentage of the winter crop here. This, coupled with a pretty bad outbreak of Black Sikatoga, has just about decimated the Cavendishes (commercial export nanners) here....

We just pulled through our worst rainy season on record - several hundred people died, and in addition to the nanners we also lost large parts of the following crops: rice, wheat, tilapia, shrimp, pineapples, taro, yuca, watermelons, and grapes.

This said, they're replanting the nanners with Manzanos, Rojos, and Sedas, which are more resistant, and the big operations are starting heavily into permaculture the way that the family farm bananeros have to avoid further fungal damage. However it will take time for stuff to re-establish.

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I speak for the trees.

mskitty38583

i am so sorry to hear that there have been deaths due to the weather conditions there. i hate to hear things like that. just a question, does the government there help the families who have lost a family member or property due to damage by mother nature? i dont know how things work there. would be interested to know. im sure replanting nana trees does take a long time. are the banana fields in lowlands? or do they have them in the mountian areas?

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"kokomo" beach boys:

magicgreen

Lorax,
Thanks for the article! I watched videos on Youtube about bananas in equador last nite!
What is the reason for putting those blue bags on the plants?
I have a couple of guesses, just wanna know the real reason! Thanks.

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

lorax

Absolutely. The first thing the Government did was send in the Army to rescue as many people as they could, which was a fair amount. The families who lost people are compensated by the state, monthly, in the amount of that person's salary. When it's a child lost to flooding, the state compensates according to what the child would have made if they'd gone on to university, which most Ecuadorans do. The Army actually rebuilt whole communities in affected areas, and the state subsidises replanting. It's very important that they do, actually, since Ecuador is largely a self-sufficient country - we export more than we import, and generally what we eat is grown here. The failure of those crops means that the price of the stuff that survived goes up, as does the price of substitute crops like potatoes, oka (oxalis), yuca, and corn.

Bananas for export are grown here on the coastal plains (which is about half the country) and up the slopes of the Andes to the edge of the cloud forests, which are protected by both the government and private concerns. Bananas can grow as far up as the treeline here - that's above 10,000 feet - and we have them in Quito although more as ornamentals than producing trees. The Amazon also grows bananas, although these are generally for personal consumption (as opposed to export).

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I speak for the trees.

lorax

We blue bag to keep the birds off, discourage the tarantulas from staying, and hasten the ripening process - blue still allows some sunlight through, as opposed to black.

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I speak for the trees.

island cassie

We are suffering from banana and plantain shortages here too - just as we were recovering from Nola and Olga and the plants were coming into fruit - we had tornados running up the Cibao valley and doing more serious damage. Not only were the banana and plantain crops affected, but also rice, corn, beans and all the salad crops. Prices are now high and exports are affected too. But the big mangos will be ready soon - yeay my favourite!!!

Cassie

lorax

Aw man, our mango season just ended... I have to wait three more months for more mangoes. Boo-urns.

Just got back from the coast, and I passed through Nanner Central on my way in. I'm currently between internet providers, but once I've got a reliable connection I've got pictures of the nanner fields. Imagine, bananas as far as the eye can see....

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I speak for the trees.

Dean W.

lorax, I look forward to your pictures.

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Dean

lorax

Here you go - there are three more in my gallery but this is the best one. This is Feijoo Hacienda 10, which is something like 50 hectares. Feijoo is an Ecuadorian company, and every five years they rotate their nanners with oil palm or papaya. This seems to cut down the Sikatoga problem for them, and consequently they weren't as badly hit as Dole or Chiquita.

Plus, there's a new fungicide called BanQuit that's doing wonders.

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I speak for the trees.