Briefs	E-mail PagePrint Version

ECUADOR BANANA PRODUCERS THREATEN TO HALT EXPORTS
 
QUITO - Banana producers from three provinces in Ecuador, the world's biggest exporter of the fruit, threatened to halt shipments abroad if the government doesn't meet the sector's demands, reports Dow Jones.

Among other demands, producers of the fruit want funds to be made available so that a fumigation program can be started. Farmers are also seeking loans with preferential terms from the national development bank to reactivate cultivation.

Banana producers are also demanding that the government take steps to better regulate exports of the fruit.

Earlier this month, producers in the province of El Oro went on strike, citing the government's failure to declare a state of emergency in the sector, which producers have been seeking for several weeks.
 
The government responded by saying it would make available $5,000 for small-scale banana producers, but the protesting farmers weren't satisfied.
 
Producers and other sectors related to the banana-growing industry reportedly went on strike in the provinces of Guayas and Los Rios in direct response to the government's offer.
 
Banana farmers, as well as producers of other agricultural products, were meeting in the main port city of Guayaquil on Wednesday, demanding that President Lucio Gutierrez meet with them to discuss measures to end the work stoppages.
 
Bananas are Ecuador's second-largest export product, after oil. In the first seven months of the year, banana exports totaled $660 million, up 13% from the like period in 2002, according to central bank data. In 2002, banana exports generated nearly $1 billion in revenues.
 
FRENCH GRAPE HARVEST WITHERS 

PARIS - This year's French wine harvest could be the lowest in a decade, after a summer of storms and heat waves, an official producers' agency has forecast.
 
And while some have predicted that quality should be sufficiently strong that high prices will compensate for lost revenues, Onivins, France's national wine industry association, warned that nothing was guaranteed.
 
"The fragrance may occasionally leave something to be desired," Onivins said in a statement.
The prediction is another blow to an industry already troubled by competition from Australia, Chile, other European Union member countries, and California.
 
Over the past decade, once-mighty French producers have lost their global pre-eminence to more market-savvy rivals with prices for wines worldwide falling significantly over the past several years.
 
France's strategy has been to focus on the high end of the market, where prices - especially for the highest quality grands crus - have been rising sharply.
 
This year had been looking like a low-volume harvest ever since extreme heat hit France in July, but producers were always confident that quality could be good, or even exceptional.
 
Onivins' latest estimates put the 2003 harvest at a total of 47.5 million hectolitres, well down on the 56.9 million averaged over the previous five years.
 
According to Onivins Director Jean-Luc Dairien, quality "was far from assured, since the secret of producing great wine from this year's shriveled grapes lay in the selection and blending."

Usually, he said, hot weather reduces the overall harvest tonnage, but produces fine wine by killing parasites and raising the grapes' sugar - and therefore alcohol - content. 

Go back, or read the latest briefs:

TRADE

empty