Banana

Jennie Coleman, president of Canadian Fairtrade banana company Equifruit, has been named one of the winners of this year’s Globe and Mail Changemakers Award. read more

Costa Rican banana growers have formally requested the Central Bank (BCCR) to intervene in the face of the volatility that the dollar exchange rate is experiencing because, according to them, it could cause an imminent closure of farms and the loss of jobs. read more

According to a price monitoring by Portugal’s DECO Proteste, the prices of fruit and vegetables have increased by more than 30% in the space of a year, with buying exactly the same products now costing €7.21 more than in 2022. read more

Police in Ecuador have found almost 8.8 tons of cocaine in a shipment of bananas bound for Belgium. According to police commander Fausto Salinas, the drugs would have been worth an estimated $330 mln had they reached their destination. read more

According to data from the Statistical Observatory of Bananas (OEB), the main Middle Eastern destinations for the country's bananas between January and December 2022 were Turkey with a 33.38% share, Saudi Arabia with a 23.34% share, and Iraq with 18.52%. read more

The Philippines will start shipping durian to China next month. An initial volume of 7,500 tons of durians is ready to be sent to China in March, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement, citing the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Plant Industry. The initial
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At least 150 banana growers whose plantations were infected with Fusarium wilt or Panama disease shifted to corn farming in Davao del Norte province. This meant they became the first beneficiaries of Governor Edwin Jubahib’s KAAGAPAY Corn Program that provides farmers with free corn seeds and
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In January, Brazilian banana exports dropped compared to the same month last year. According to Secex, the volume shipped was 7,280 tons, down 12%. Revenue dropped 9%, amounting to just US$ 2.98 million (FOB). read more

Ecuador’s banana sector started the year well, with a 7.89% increase, to export 2.59 million more boxes in January 2023 (35.01 million boxes) compared to the January 2022 (32.42 million boxes). However, the dollar value and sales in key markets decreased at the same time. At the international
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In week 5, the three-week average wholesale prices of bananas from Latin America stood at €115/100 kgs. read more

Cyclone Freddy, now downgraded to a tropical storm, has had an unusually long life as it makes landfall between Vilankulos and Maxixe, with the provinces of Sofala and Inhambane in Mozambique. in its path.  read more

Policy makers and experts from the banana sector and non-profit organisations gathered in Berlin earlier this month to hear about the sustainability efforts of Ecuador’s banana sector. read more

According to Biosecurity Queensland Panama TR4 Program Leader Rhiannon Evans, the disease has been found in six Queensland farms that are "close to one another," posing an increasing threat to Australia's $1 billion banana industry. read more

Banana farmers in Saint Lucia, according to Minister of Agriculture Alfred Prospere, are not producing enough bananas to satisfy the local market, and he is taking action to expand their supply to that market. read more

The Philippines’s banana export volume last year dropped to a six-year low of 2.273 million metric tons as producers faced high input costs to the spread of Fusarium wilt. read more

Several signs have been spotted on empty shelves, where bananas normally are, by shoppers at supermarkets all over New Zealand. read more

James Howe, a banana farmer, is astonished by the lengths and turns his fruit takes to get to customers. The bananas are placed in 15-kilogram cartons, piled, and refrigerated the previous night before being transported along the east coast to Derby in Western Australia by trucks. read more

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar has doubled its imports of Ecuadorian plantain and bananas and they will soon be marketed in the micro-markets of Woqod fuel stations, the largest gasoline distribution company in the country. read more

Ethylene for fruit ripening has been used for quite some time. The standard application up until the early 1970s was a ‘lecture bottle’ or ‘tube’, both dangerous and not always effective in initiating the ripening process. It was 1973 and Jerry McDonnell, owner of a banana distribution
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In December 2022, five large Belgian chains joined the initiative that had already been launched by retailers Lidl, Aldi Sur y Norte, Kaufland, Rewe, DM, and Tegut in Germany, to ensure a living wage for workers on banana plantations. read more