In Ecuador growers are threatening to strike if the government does not take action to enforce payment of the official banana price. “Those growers who have signed a contract are being paid the $3.25 a box by exporters,” one grower in the El Guabo area told the regional press. “But for the others we are paid a derisory sum. It’s been going on for weeks now and no-one has done anything.”
As FPJ went to press, the strike was set to commence on July 9 if the situation remained unchanged.
The government is also acting to get banana growers better organised into trade bodies and has drawn up statutes for the constitution of a national federation of banana producers’ chambers.
Ecuador is still challenging the EU over its import regime at the WTO and this week changed its legal team as it tries to get the tariff back down from €176 to €75.
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