Banana exports fall

[NewsWhore]

One of the Dominican Republic's most successful exports, bananas, has seen a 37% reduction due to the effects of two strong tropical storms, Noel and Olga, late last year. Unfortunately, these natural disasters hit at a time when new competition was appearing on the scene, and both organic and conventional banana exports are now facing a new struggle to regain their market shares. Up until 31 December 2007, the European Union had a quota system for banana imports from the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries. But in January, the market became wide open, free of tariffs and duties to all banana-producing nations. The Dominican Republic used to export 200,000 40-pound boxes of bananas each week, but this has fallen to 125,000 due to the damage to local banana fields after the flooding. With 1,200 local producers and 15,000 jobs at stake, the banana sector is currently working to maintain its hegemony as the leading producer and exporter of organic bananas to Europe. However, farmers in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru are also trying to get their piece of the European banana pie.

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