DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Small banana producers cannot afford the high cost of producing for European export markets and as a result there is a 44% drop in exports over the past three years, spokespeople for the Dominican Association of Banano Producers (Adobanano) explained to Fresh Fruit Portal. The sector is also impacted by a decrease in foreign manual labor and climate change.

“We’re made up of 1,300 plantain growers who produce around 390 containers weekly,” Gil Blas Martínez, Adobanano’s president told Fresh Fruit Portal. “Our industry has seen a decrease in exports from US$363 million to US$202 million in only three years.”

Likewise, Adobanano’s executive director, Martín Eduardo Peña Taveras, said one of the major challenges is that the processes required to export plantains to the European Union—the country’s leading importer—have become increasingly expensive. These price hikes are hurting small...