SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND TRADE -
A PANEL DISCUSSION

Presentation of Jaime Rhon Davila, Urocal

In the first place I'd like to say that in this conference there are only a few banana producers. So it would be best to avoid using technical terms in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. I'll try to sum up my ideas and to be as concrete as possible. In Ecuador we have around 300 000 hectars of cultivated banana fields. That means that 1.92% of the country's total surface is used for banana cultivation. 127 000 hectars, 42% of the aforenamed 300 000 hectars, are used for the cultivation of bananas destined for export. The main varieties are Cavendish and Gros Mitchell, 70% are Cavendish bananas.

How are the producers organised? 4,739 producers participate in national-specific banana programmes. 4,365 of them, that means 92%, are small-scale producers. A small-scale producer is someone whose economic activity provides him with no more than a marginal rentability. He is a mono- or micro-entrepreneur. So 92% of the equatorian producers are small-scale producers, and 7.9% are medium-scale or large-scale producers with plantations of more than 60 hectars. Producers with more than 60 hectars of cultivated land represent 42.35% of the global banana cultivation. The production is between 35 and 45 boxes per week, that means between 1,750 and 2,250 boxes per year and per hectar. Small-scale producers represent 57.65% of the banana cultivation. Their production rate is between 23 and 32 boxes per hectar and between 1,150 and 1,600 boxes per year and per hectar.

Urocal has about 600 members. They are all small-scale producers, but do not all work in the banana-producing sector. There are also producers of cacao and citrus fruits. The potential banana production of Urocal producers is about 16 500 barrels per year. As you can see, the banana business in Ecuador is shared by medium-, large- and small-scale producers in a 50%/50% relation.

Where do small-scale producers sell their product? We sell to the trans-nationals: Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte. We also sell to export companies from Ecuador such as Bonita, Bananorex, Van and Vanov. There are about 30 companies from Ecuador.

We cultivate two types of banana: the first one is conventional and is destined for the conventional market. The second one is an ecological banana. It is sold in a recently formed market. We are developing this market right now, and there are a couple of surprising elements which are very striking.

What is the main difference between conventional and ecological bananas? This lies in the quantity and quality of agrochemicals used in processing, in the plantation technology and in the care, development, cutting, packaging and preparation for shipping. So you really can't say that the ecological banana is a wild type of banana, which doesn't need any special care. The ecological banana is a banana that needs much more care than the conventional banana. There are materials which are used in the processing of conventional bananas which you are not allowed to use in the processing of ecological bananas. This obliges one to create new methods and systems, and to find alternative products for treatment. For instance, the Latex-effect used as a pesticide and for cutting in the production process of the conventional banana is forbidden in the case of ecological bananas. That's why we use a composition of lemon-juice, oranges, pollen, bees' honey, etc.

We export to the fair trade market under the "Max Haveland" label. There is a long tradition of exporting to Denmark, Belgium and, especially, to the Netherlands. We have also occasionally exported to Switzerland as well.

How do we export to those markets? There are a couple of norms called "Max Haveland" norms. We should distinguish between two kinds of them. On the one hand, there are guild norms, that's to say those concerned with social and labour aspects. On the other hand, there are ecological norms which try to limit the impact of agrochemicals on the product.

One should keep in mind that Ecuador is located in the arid part of the planet. Although it rains very little, when it does rain the rainfalls can be very severe, and there are problems with poisonous fungi which almost prevent us from fumigating some areas. As a result of this problem, fumigation is a complicated process taking several hours and demanding a lot of patience. We have to spray using aeroplanes. There are some obvious contradictions about the norms and people always pretend that the norms are still open to discussion and that they do not really have a binding character. But in the ecological market the situation is different

As well as exporting the varities Cavendish and Gros Mitchell, we also export "Baby Bananas" and "Red Bananas". The conditions of qualification for the farmers who wish to export to the fair trade market are established by the "Eco-Guaranty" from Nuremberg, Germany. They provide certification, control the farms and guarantee the quality of the product that the consumer gets. It's not really a label - it is a certification. It's different from the "Max Havelaar" label.

What does a small-scale producer expect from the consumers? He expects that the consumer understands all the efforts the producer makes in order to offer a product which is more nutritious and has less heavy metals and toxins in its skin, and that he accepts that these additional efforts have to be recom- pensed by the payment of a premium price, so that distortions in the market can be corrected right there. Thank you.