Changes in the Economic Geography of Banana Production in Ecuador

Changes in the Economic Geography of Banana Production in Ecuador
Author(s): David A. Preston
Source: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, No. 37 (Dec., 1965), pp. 77-90
Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
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Changes in the Economic Geography of Banana
Production in Ecuador
DAVID A. PRESTON, B.A., M.SC., PH.D.
(Lecturer in Geography, University of Leeds)
MS. received 18June 1964; revised MS. received lo March 1965
Introduction
AT PRESENT Ecuador accounts for about one quarter of the world's banana trade and exports
more bananas than any other country in the world; but compared with other major banana
exporting countries Ecuador is in an anomalous position. For in Ecuador bananas are not grown
on large plantations owned by North American monopolies; and, in recent years, Ecuador
has sold a diminishing proportion of her fruit to the U.S.A., the world's leading banana
importer.
Bananas are the mainstay of the Ecuadorian economy, just as other tropical crops have been
in the past. It is, therefore, surprising that there has been no detailed analysis of the economics
of commercial banana cultivation or of the more distinctive aspects of its economic geography.
James J. Parsons made a brief study of banana production in I956 and in a paper published in the
following year gave a substantially correct account of some aspects of banana production in
Ecuador.1 He was writing before the results of the Censo Agropecuario of I954 had been published and seems to have been able to obtain very little data about the nature of banana production in Ecuador. In addition Parsons held rather pessimistic views regarding the role of
Ecuadorian bananas on the world market, particularly in relation to the North American fruit
monopolies.
In the eight years since that article was written a great deal of data regarding the Ecuadorian banana industry has become available, and a number of significant changes have taken
place. The United Fruit Company no longer grows bananas in Ecuador; efficient methods of
combatting disease have been evolved and are being practised with an impressive degree of
success; and important changes in the method of exporting and in the patterns of exports have
been accompanied by a sudden increase in the total exports of bananas.
The present paper is intended to supplement Parsons's earlier account. Some aspects dealt
with inadequately will be examined and the changes in banana production and export will be
described and analysed.
Sources of Data
Ecuador's first census of agriculture was held in I954. The results, published in I956,2
provide a useful array of data but are of limited value for analysing the banana industry at the
present time. The data gathered were adequate in scope, and the margin of error for the coastal
zone was smaller than in the area where the first Census records were collected in the northern
Sierra; but adoption of cantonal divisions (which, for example, placed the newly-developed
77
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78
D.
A.
PRESTON
tropical
farming
area
of
S
capital,
Quito)
reduces
its
error
in
the
I954
data
rath
Guayas,
for
example,
whe
and
I957,
the
I954
census
r
indicated
35,000
hectares.
The
the
data
in
former
whose
the
census
Asociacion
fruit
is
destined
co
N
fo
W q^^J^ >2,000ho.
>2,500 ho.
1,000 -2,000 ho.
1,.00 -2,500 ho.
v\\\\\ SO- 1,000 ha. o
f i~ \\\\ \200-SOOho. J
i Li 100 -200ho.
0
k\\\\\\\\m\\\\\\\\\\ 5 SO- mooho.
25- 100 ha.
0-25 ha.
|T 20-20 ho.
25
I
.
IS
.
.
5
.
THOUSAND HECTARES
I
_^^^ AANBE
1954 CENSUS
FIGURE I-Distribution of banana-growing holdings by size.
success of its campaign against sigatoka (a fungus-borne leaf blight), but they in
ber and area of members' holdings arranged by provinces and by size categor
No. 396 dated I9 December I963 the Military Junta dissolved ANBE and create
the Direccion Nacional del Banano (DNB) with a much broader scope than ANB
I964 there appeared the first number of the Revista Ecuatoriano del Banano wh
provide up-to-date analyses of the trends and problems of the Ecuadorian ban
A major problem with all the data from ANBE and DNB is not so much its re
degree to which it represents all commercial banana producers. ANBE off
that between 80 and go per cent of all commercial banana growers are included
zation's data, which would, in that case, cover about 95 per cent of commercial
tion for export. The growers who were not members of ANBE included,
very small-scale producers who sell their fruit through indirect channels to an
are just unwilling to join the scheme and, on the other hand many producers i
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BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR
79
disease is insufficiently important to encourage growers to join the Associati
facilitate the protection of their plants. Some idea of the disparity between da
census and ANBE sources for 1960-61 is indicated in Figure I. According t
average area of bananas planted by each grower on the coastlands was 3.8 ha.
ANBE figures indicate that the average holding of members was 55.6 ha. (I37.
the census recorded 25,319 holdings growing bananas compared with only 1,9
were members of ANBE. The considerable difference between these two sets
the light of the popularity of the banana as a subsistence crop in lowland Ecu
invalidate the ANBE data which, as has been suggested, do give a substantial i
nature of commercial banana production for export. Data for the 1963-64 crop
DNB sources and seem to be directly comparable with previous ANBE data. Sm
being encouraged to co-operate with the DNB, and data may now be mor
because of the inclusion of more minor producers and others in isolated localit
Finally, the productivity of commercial banana plantations cannot be assess
been estimated that only half of the bananas intended for export are actually
remainder being rejected by inspectors for the exporters as being of low qualit
either destroyed, consumed locally, or shipped illegally to Peru. Data concern
of fruit exported do not, therefore, give any idea of productivity. In the absen
statistics, information on productivity is largely speculative.
Recent Changes in Areas of Banana Production
As in many under-developed countries, the expansion of
the improvement and construction of highways. The most
banana production in Ecuador have all been associated with
1961 of the highway from Quevedo to Santo Domingo; the
agriculture is close
important extensi
new highways. Th
improvement of t
Domingo to Esmeraldas; and the construction of that from Chone to Sant
all been associated with local increases in banana production. In the summer o
along the line to be followed by the highway from Santo Domingo to Queved
down bananas and leaving them to rot for lack of transport; and, until the roa
many farmers had been enduring a temporary penury while awaiting the arriv
way to allow them to sell their fruit.
The precise importance of new areas in the overall pattern of Ecuadorian
tion is uncertain in view of the inadequacy of published data. In some areas w
brought about a decline in production other adjacent areas have been cultivat
and the area and production of bananas for the whole region has thus rem
Within many areas of commercial banana production the detailed pattern of ba
changes from season to season.
The centre of banana cultivation has remained the Guayas lowland, and fur
to the cultivated area in Los Rios has increased the production of fruit from
planned construction by 1969 of a highway from Babahoyo to Quevedo will f
agricultural production in the zone. Increases in production in the northern
associated with the improvement in communications, particularly along the r
from Santo Domingo. By contrast, production from Esmeraldas province as a
have declined and an increasing proportion of the province's fruit comes
inland from Muisne and from the riverine zone inland from the northern m
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D. A. PRESTON
80
The increased area of land now irrigated in the south has led to a rise in production from this zone;
moreover, this area is relatively free from sigatoka as a result of low humidity, and there may
be the possibility of considerable future expansion in the south.
FIGURE 2-Areas of commercial banana production in Ecuador.
Recent estimates suggest that the central area of the Guayas lowlands now accounts for
some 60 per cent of national production for export, the south 22 per cent, and the north only
II per cent, compared with 28 per cent in I945.5
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BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR 8I
Land Holdings in Areas of Commercial Ban
Ecuador occupies an anomalous position with
producers in that banana production is not domin
growers, and that the average size of commercial b
America. By Ecuadorian standards, however, bana
suggestion that 'most of the new banana farms...
in fruit'6 is quite unjustified (Fig. I). While regions
greatest proportion of their cultivated area in fru
average size is still considerably larger than the 4
for the crop year 1963-64 indicate average holdin
75.9 ha. (I87.5 ac.) in Guayas, compared with th
47.1 ha. (I 6.3 ac.) (using DNB data).8 Although it m
exaggerates slightly the average size of holdings, n
production of banana for export in Ecuador as tak
country where the average holding is only 17 ha. (
seems quite large.
The character of Ecuadorian banana holdings is
number of growers have more than one property
grower had 1.44 holdings. Some interesting region
northern provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabi, and Pi
one holding (in fact, only I.I holding per grower)
the national average, El Oro had a much greater i
held on the average two holdings each.
The importance of the major foreign fruit com
cade. The United Fruit Company's holding at Teng
financed Astral Company, through its Ecuadorian
now only 2250 ha. (5538 ac.) in bananas after at least
from Panama disease. The importance of the fore
ever, in the exporting field.
Disease
The most disastrous of the banana diseases, sigatoka, appeared in Ecuador later than in the
Caribbean. It was first reported in northern Esmeraldas province just before I950. It spread
slowly but by I952 was causing serious losses in Esmeraldas province. The spread of
the disease was at first hindered by the scattered nature of the banana holdings and by poor
communications but, as highways were improved and more farmers planted bananas, its
spread was facilitated. The dry season, which becomes more prolonged in the southern banana
producing areas, is a further important factor limiting the spread of the disease, since its spores
require banana leaves to be covered by a film of moisture in order to develop. This dry season
has proved an important factor in the battle against the disease, since spraying need only
be carried out during part of the year.
At the same time as sigatoka was becoming more of a menace in Ecuador, French workers
in Martinique and Guadeloupe were making an important break-through in the treatment of
G
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82
D. A. PRESTON
the disease. By fogging and mist-blowing a mixture of spray oil, diesel fuel and copper oxychloride (Zineb) in plantations affected by sigatoka and, with the application of only 27 litres
(6 gallons) per hectare (25 galls./acre), compared with the common application of 2700 litres
(6oo gallons) per hectare of a Bordeaux mixture, a high degree of control of the disease was
obtained. Following up the experiments made in the Antilles, Ecuadorian investigators found
that the cheapest and most effective treatment was six gallons per hectare of spray oil alone.9
Application every fourteen days during the wet season and every twenty-one days during dry
periods has provided an adequate degree of control. ANBE stimulated the use of this treatment
against Sigatoka and had a high degree of success. The chief danger lies, however, in scattered
plantations where sigatoka is rife, and which serve as nuclei from which the disease can spread
to surrounding holdings.
Producers who were members of ANBE carried out the greater part of their spraying from
the air. During the season I960-6I, 86 per cent of the I102,00 hectares (252,000 acres) treated
were sprayed from the air, and nearly 90 per cent of the areas treated were sprayed with spray
oil at a cost of 6-7 shillings per acre. Spraying begins in January in most areas, although highaltitude plantations frequently have to begin spraying in December on account of the earlier
onset of the rains. In the southern plantations spraying does not need to begin until February,
although in I960 it was not until April that the local thermo-hydrographs, installed to give
warning of atmospheric conditions favouring sporulation of sigatoka, recorded temperatures
and humidities favourable to the pest.
A detailed account of the occurrences of sigatoka during the I960-6I growing season
indicated that Esmeraldas Province had the highest incidence of sigatoka, largely because of
the large number of growers in that province who were not members of ANBE. Over the
rest of the important banana-growing areas the losses from sigatoka were small and seldom
amounted to more than 5 per cent of the total crop. In two areas of recently established planta-
tions, at Quininde and Santo Domingo, disease caused losses of up to 17 per cent during
the months of worst infection. In the west of the central zone, near Chone, losses occurred
amounting to about I6 per cent of the area sown. Disease was least in the southern areas
because of the more prolonged dry season, but even here infestation occurred in a few
small areas.
During the last two growing seasons the campaign against sigatoka has been continued
with further success. In contrast to Parsons's comment of some years ago that 'the only effective
answer to sigatoka has been the abandonment of infected plantings', the disease has now been
brought under control; and the national Campana de Defensa del Banano has extended its activities to defence against other banana pests such as the Picudo negro (Cosmopolites sordidus L.).
Despite its considerable importance in Central American producing areas, the threat of
Panama disease has long been inadequately understood by Ecuadorian growers. The extent
and inadequacy of current information was examined recently by Luis Tazan.10 The disease
has appeared throughout Ecuador, except in the Muisne area and in the riverine lands inland
from the northern mangrove coast. The areas most affected are to the east and south-east of
Guayaquil. Some 15,000 hectares of banana land near M.J. Calle have been virtually abandoned
for bananas. In addition, estimates by local agricultural agents suggest that 75 per cent of
banana land near Zapotal (midway between Babahoyo and Quevedo, on the Guayas river)
and 47 per cent of land near the Rio Quininde is affected by Panama disease. Until disease-resistant varieties of fruit are introduced it is unlikely that the threat from Panama disease will
diminish.
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BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR
83
Changes in the Marketing of Ecuadorian Bananas
Progressive improvement of communications and the construction of new hig
the means by which the pattern of banana production can be changed in Ecuador, b
techniques of shipment, in the preference of foreign buyers for Ecuadorian frui
form in which the fruit is sold may have an equally important impact on the volu
exported and thus on the pattern of production. The present system of transporti
from field to shipside favours large-scale producers and those with ease of access
points, since stems are very vulnerable to bruising and only large quantity shipm
elaborate care worthwhile. The increasing use of boxed bananas and the possible i
exports of dehydrated fruit serve to indicate the ways in which the method of me
may change.
The most important recent change is the packing of the bananas in cardb
(cajas) and wooden lath crates (jabas). Since 1960 the production of bananas thus ex
increased from nil to I8 per cent of the total banana exports during 1963. The cajas
40 lbs. of fruit while the jabas, used mainly for fruit to be sent to Chile hold up
Boxed bananas were first extensively shipped from Central America and importers
ly prefer boxed fruit, the largest proportion of which goes to the U.S.A., while
the German Federal Republic and other western European countries.11 Vario
Guayaquil estimate that over half of Ecuadorian shipments will be of boxed fruit
years. The export of boxed fruit requires a completely new form of organiza
controls have to be stringently maintained at boxing stations near the plantations
in 1963, were organized by exporters. Fruit is selected in stems on arrival at the pa
and the hands cut from the stem, selected, washed, dried, graded, and packed in
United Fruit Company stations sort much of their fruit into the three grades in
market the fruit in the U.S.A. At present boxes are supplied to United Fruit by
but there is little doubt that they could be produced in Ecuador as demand increases
The advantages of boxed fruit are obvious. Handling at all stages is facilitated
processes involving most labour in the importing country (separation of the stem
washing and packing) are all carried out in Ecuador, near the plantation, where la
are low. The quality of the fruit can be more thoroughly controlled and whole stem
be rejected if one or two hands are spoilt. Higher quality means higher prices whic
cost of packing in this manner.
In principle the establishment of packing stations throughout coastal Ecuador
prove the competitive position of the most isolated banana areas, such as Muisne
Santiago areas, where the risk of spoilage in transit is greatest. In fact the main b
already well endowed with communications, are most likely to be the areas first ser
ing stations, unless government action favours the less accessible areas.
The opening of Guayaquil's Puerto Nuevo, where for the first time ocean-goi
can dock, was expected to improve loading conditions; but most of the banan
anchor in mid-stream off the city and are loaded by barge. Avoidance of harbou
convenience for fruit brought down-river by water, and the absence of a metalled
port may have contributed to this.
A further indication of a change in the pattern of banana exports in recent yea
port of dehydrated bananas and banana flour. Although neither is yet manufactu
quantity, the total exports having been I59I tons in I96212, such products using s
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D. A. PRESTON
84
bananas may well be a useful and even an important adjunct to commercial banana production.
One of the most serious problems in the marketing of bananas is the large proportion of
fruit grown for export but never actually exported. Fruit is rejected as being of low quality, is
lost through disease, damaged in transit to the coast, not harvested for lack of a market, or
'spoilt' in some other way. Some growers claim that exporters demand more stems to be
delivered at the ship than the vessel can accept, and that a proportion of the fruit thus has to be
rejected irrespective of its quality; on the other hand, the exporters assert that a proportion of
the fruit arriving at a checkpoint is sub-standard as a result of careless handling, of being
diseased, or of being too small. An important study of this problem was carried out by a member of the Ecuadorian National Planning Board (Junta Nacional de Planificacio'n y Coordinacion
TABLE I
Destination of Bananas Harvested in Coastal Ecuador: 1955
Million Amount of(2)
Use Stems Consumed by
(1) (2) Livestock
Exported (34.5 per cent) 23.8
Internal human consumption 6.2 Internal livestock consumption 5.5 5.5
Industrial consumption 3.5
39.0
5-5
Rejected at port* 3.0 Rejected at plantation 3.0 1.2
Lost due to lack of communications 3.0 1.8
Lost due to falling of the fruit I.5 o.6
Lost
due
to
disease
I9.4
3.8
Total of lost and rejected fruit (43.3 per cent) 29.9 7.4
Total livestock consumption 12.9
Total national consumption 68.9
* 50 per cent of the fruit rejected at the port is estimated to be
by local people. Internal Human Consumption should thus be 7.8 mil
Source: J. GONZALEZ op. cit., 5 (based on ANBE data calculated expr
him).
Economica) during I955-56.13 His study of the productivity of Ecuadorian agriculture included
the collection of data on the fate of the banana crop. The sources of his data are not specifically
stated, but in all probability are based on estimates and samples at individual ports. He concluded that, in 1955, no less than 43 per cent of the fruit grown was lost through mishap or
disease or was rejected either at the plantation or at the port (see Table I). Recent estimates
suggest similarly that only 50 per cent of the crop is sold.14 Furthermore, information from
ANBE suggested that of the fruit rejected at the quayside, besides the proportion absorbed
by the local market (estimated at 50 per cent by Gonzalez), a significant quantity was shipped
from Guayaquil along the mangrove coast to Huaquillas on the Peruvian frontier and there
sold to Peruvian wholesalers, thus realizing a handsome profit although for sub-standard fruit.
The national press and the banana-growers' organizations deplore this sale of poor-quality
fruit, but since the alternative is to destroy it, such a trade seems economically justifiable. The
proportion of the banana crop indicated in Table I as not exported or consumed locally
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BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR 85
represents net wastage that could, with improveme
ated and be used to increase national exports and to
Ecuadorian Bananas on the World Mark
Changes in the techniques and pattern of banan
upon an expanding market for Ecuadorian bananas
mine the competitive position of Ecuadorian fruit i
Bananas are a relatively stable commodity on th
sudden variations of demand and those price chang
sive. In his study of the export trade of Ecuador1
market for bananas in North America is saturated
proportional to natural population increase. On the
countries have increased their consumption per he
decade (Table II). Ecuador has been the world's lead
1961 it produced nearly one quarter of the banana
the exporter next in importance to Ecuador, suppli
and other producers are considerably less impor
American countries amount to almost one-third of
ficance to Ecuador that production in these cou
American fruit companies.
Ecuador has a number of competitive advantages
cally cause losses on Central American plantations,
each year by winds. In Ecuador high winds are sel
areas, and fruit is very rarely lost as a result o
produced for a longer period in several Central Am
dominance of large plantations, disease has been a
able time. Although much research has been under
methods of combatting the diseases, losses, cost of
spent in preparing new plantations, amount annual
outlay. Disease in Ecuador is of comparatively recen
losses in certain areas, it has not been as disastrous
that Ecuador has over Central America is a superio
is below world average) which finds favour with w
tries. Although the problem of transport of fruit
the rigid system of quality controls should obviat
fruit is 'frequently of inferior appearance'.16 The g
a sophisticated public relations system to support i
quality of Ecuadorian fruit.
Because Ecuador's banana production is not domi
is largely in the hands of medium-scale producers
otherwise be. There is some political activity, desig
against employers, but such movements seem to m
producers in Central America have been periodical
partly to the higher standards of living enjoye
labourers, costs of operating are higher there than
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D. A. PRESTON
86
Ecuador also owes her present position in the world banana trade partly to having begun
large-scale exports of bananas at the very time when her competitors were handicapped by a
variety of problems. It is partly on this account that her present position is vulnerable and her
future not assured. Owing to the low level of wages, operating costs in Ecuador are lower than
in other banana-exporting countries; but, being situated between 600 and 900 miles south of
the Panama Canal, her transport costs are higher,
A disadvantageous factor potentially of more serious consequence is the dominance of
the transport of Ecuadorian fruit to North American markets by the leading North American
fruit companies. Standard and United Fruit companies alone shipped 34 per cent of total
banana exports in 1960; but by 1964 their share had declined to only 29 per cent as a result of
TABLE II
Per Caput Supplies of Bananas in Selected Countries
(in kilograms)
Country 1934-38 1948-52 1954 1958 I962
France
2.4
4.7
6.4
-
8.4
German Fed. Republic i.8 I.2 5.4 7.8 8.1
Belgium and Luxembourg 2.7 4.0 5.2 6.5 7.I
Netherlands 3.6 1.3 2.6 4.6 6.0
Italy
0.4
Sweden
i.6
Norway
Denmark
0.3
2.5
3.3
0.9
0.5
0.8
-
2.1
8.i
5.9
0.6
6.2
5.3
2.7
5.4
5.9
7.7
6.2
Finland 0.7 O.I 1.3 2.5 3.I
Spain I.o 3.2 1.7 - 6.6
Switzerland i.6 2.6 3-7 6.5 9.4
Austria O.I O.I 0.9 2.5 4.3
Great Britain 6.2 3.1 5.8 5.4 7.0
U.S.A. Io.5 9.0 9.3 8.7 9.2
Canada 4.5 6.6 8.8 8.6 8.2
Sources:
HANS
Producci6n
y
LINNEMAN,
Consumo
del
op.
cit.,
14
Banano',
a
R
the increased shipments to Japan. D
dorian fruit, these companies have
if any situation were to arise that m
undoubtedly suffer. The current pr
dorian-owned banana fleet indicate
stemming
large
from
fruit
the
position
companies
have
that
S
highly
America, so that, if disease become
tors may be better able to exploit t
resistant varieties of bananas, such
planted in Central America but are
disadvantage from which Ecuadoria
as has been pointed out, might pre
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87
BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR
The Pattern of the Ecuadorian Banana Trade
The United States obtains most of its bananas from Central America and
countries, and during the last decade Ecuadorian supplies have amounted to
40 per cent of her total imports. The two South American countries import
large scale, Argentina and Chile, have both built up a reciprocal fruit trade wi
the former with Brazil and the latter with Ecuador. Temperate fruits, m
exported by each of these countries to their banana suppliers. Ecuador's tra
increased considerably during the last decade; but, despite this, banana export
to only about 5 per cent of her total banana export trade and in I964 were on
The West European countries tend to import bananas primarily from th
TABLE III
World Banana Trade
('ooo Stems)
I96I
Exporting Country 1960 196I* % World
Trade
Costa
Rica
9,946
I2,898
7.04
Dominican Republic 7,I66 5,906 3.23
Guadeloupe 5,o80 5,395 2.94
Guatemala 11,082 8,450 4.6I
Honduras 16,734 23,836 3.00oo
Jamaica 6,Ioo 6,I40 3-35
Martinique 5,565 6,074 3.3I
Panama I5,2I0 II,992
Brazil 10,668 II,000
6.54
6.oo
9,982 5.46
Colombia 9,144
Ecuador 50,674 44,451 24.25
Canary Islands 8,276 8,300t 4.53
Rest of world 25,265 28,865 I5-74
WORLD 180,910 183,289 I00.00
* Preliminary
t Estimated
Source: Foreign Crops and Markets: World Summaries, 30 August, 1962.
former tropical colonial territories, and Ecuadorian fruit faces severe competition from Caribbean and West African areas. Despite this competition, one quarter of Ecuador's bananas are
destined for Western Europe. Ecuador's most important customers are those European countries without tropical colonial territories, the German Federal Republic is in fact Ecuador's
main customer, importing over one-sixth of Ecuador's bananas since 1955 (see Table IV).
During 1961 a new importer of Ecuadorian bananas emerged-Japan-and this seemed a
part of the general strengthening of Japanese commercial ties with Latin America:17 in fact
Japan took I9-4 per cent of Ecuadorian banana exports in I963. But this was only a tempo-
rary phase due to the heavy losses of fruit through disease in Taiwan, Japan's traditional
banana supplier. By late 1964 Taiwan plantations had recovered sufficiently to re-enter the
market and the last shipments of bananas to Japan from Ecuador were inJanuary, 1965. This was
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88
D.
A.
PRESTON
part
of
the
explanation
half
of
1965,
were
run
Some
72
per
cent,
of
the
natural
outlet
fo
northern
part
of
E'
Or
south
are
taken
by
ro
quantity
of
bananas
sh
de
Caraquez
as
its
outle
TABLE IV
Destination of Ecuadorian Bananas*
1963
I964
Importing Country 'ooo bunches per cent 'ooo bunches per cent
U.S.A. 22,186 52.5 20,192
Japan 8,192 I9.4 5,532
48.8
I3.4
German Federal Republic 5,375 12.7 8,257 I9.9
Belgium 2,409 5.7 3,813 9.2
Chile 1,234 2.9 881 2.I
Netherlands 710 I.7 553 1.3
Peru
683
i.6
351
0.8
Switzerland 458 I.I 345 o.8
Sweden 403 I.0 420 I.0
Canada
303
0.7
I6
0.3
Austria
I96
Norway
France
Italy
63
38
-
-
0.5
I92
o.I
I9I
0.5
300
0.7
o.
200
0.5
0.5
42,258 I00.0 41,409 I00.0
* The reliability of data collected by the Ecuadorian Custom
for all published Ecuadorian data on banana exports, was studied
some variance between Customs data and total arrived at by col
porting countries. Data for exports of bananas to the U.S.A. dif
cent between Ecuadorian and United States data; data for exp
Republic varied by approximately 2 per cent.
Source: DIRECCION NACIONAL DEL BANANO, Informe Anual de E
Banano (Guayaquil, 1964), Cuadro No. 13.
Newly developed plantations between Santo Domingo an
Esmeraldas, although the improvement of roads betw
Guayaquil has diverted a certain amount of trade towar
Prospectsfor the Banana Trade of Ecuador
The importance of banana exports to the Ecuadorian
1962, cacao and coffee, the two other most important e
the export trade but together amounted to little more t
pared with 55 per cent contributed by bananas.18 Banan
cacao did in the I930's, and although it is not strictly t
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89
BANANA PRODUCTION IN ECUADOR
export economy, successive annual reports of the Banco Central have stressed
danger of over-reliance upon one crop.
Serious attempts are now being made to improve the facilities for handli
Ecuadorian ports. A network of modern roads is partly completed, and h
in Guayaquil have been greatly improved with the completion of the new
even with these improved facilities, primitive conditions at Puerto Bolivar m
the standard of the condition in which Ecuadorian fruit arrives in the consum
Through ANBE there has been an increased use of modern methods to com
A greater degree of governmental control over colonization and export c
introduction of disease-resistant strains of bananas and thus reduce the impor
sigatoka campaign as well as stimulate the planting of cash crops other t
per cent
70
60-
50 -
40O
30
f>
o
ln
in
o,
0W
2
9
O
In
ln
10
0W
o,
ol
FIGURE
2
,0
o,
3-Banana
e
setting
up
of
the
D
will
serve
as
a
stim
encourage
a
prefere
ance
of
Ecuador
in
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author gratefully acknowledges a grant from the University of Leeds towards the cost of
NOTES
1JAMESJ. PARSONS, 'Bananas in Ecuador: a new chapter in the history of tropical agriculture', econ
20I-I6.
2 Banco central del Ecuador, Primer censo agropecuario nacional, 1954 (Quito, 1956).
3 Oficina permanente de estadisticas agropecuarias, Resultados de la investigacion general ag
I958).
4 Campaia de defensa del banano, Informe al Ministerio de Fomento, 1961-62 (Quito, I962), Cuadro No. 5.
5 CESAR HERRERA V., 'Tendencias de la actividad bananera en el Ecuador', Rev. Ecuatoriana del Banano, I (1964), 22.
6JAMES J. PARSONS, op. cit., 203.
7 According to the 1954 Census, the banana holdings in Esmeraldas have 28-32 per cent of their total cultivated area
in bananas, while the older agricultural areas of Los Rios have only 8-13 per cent, and parts of El Oro I6-20 per cent in
bananas.
8 CESAR HERRERA V., op. cit., 27.
9 RUSSELL DESROSIERS, The Control of Sigatoka Disease on the Gros Michel Banana by Low Volume Spraying in Ecuador
(Quito, I958).
10 LUIS A. TAZAN C., 'Mal de Panama', Rev. Ecuatoriana delBanano, I (1964), I8-2I.
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All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
90
11
12
D.
A.
During
Banco
13JEsus
PRESTON
the
first
central
quarter
del
GONZALEZ,
of
Ecuador
Productiv
condensed
as
United
Nations,
Ecuador',
econ.
Bullfor
Latin
Am
14
Interview
with
Ing.
Carlo
15
HANS
LINNEMANN,
16JAMES
J.
PARSONS,
17
18
An
op.
Anal
cit.,
Chase
Manhattan
Bank,
'Jap
Banco
central
del
Ecuador,
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