Ecuador exported more than 315 million boxes of bananas from January to October this year, representing a 7.24 percent increase compared to the same period last year, which represents a new sales record, as reported by Vistazo.
In 2019, Ecuador had achieved a record of 357 million boxes sold, and it’s on track to surpass that figure this year, breaking records back to back years, further demonstrating its leadership as the leading banana exporter of the world.
According to a report by the Banana Marketing and Export Association (ACORBANEC), the European Union remains the number one destination with a share of 26.9 percent this year, followed by Russia, the Middle East, the U.S., East Asia, the Southern Cone, Eastern Europe, and Africa. The latter two had significant growth, over 20 percent each.
It has been a unique year due to the global impact of COVID-19, which affected trade in many markets due to the closures of ports and mobilization bans. In addition, the drop in the price of oil affected purchasing power in several consuming countries, which had an impact on the purchase of bananas.
Despite this, Ecuador was able to maintain and achieve significant growth in exports, as for the European Union, there were 8.2 million more boxes shipped during this period when compared to 2019.
According to Richard Salazar, the executive director of ACORBANEC, the aforementioned factors have generated instability in the marketing price, evidenced in the internal prices within Ecuador.
The Central Bank of Ecuador stated that from January to September, bananas have been the country’s leading non-oil export product, representing $2.4 billion for the Ecuadorian economy.
