São Paulo – Lady’s finger banana is ready to arrive at Middle Eastern households. If it is up to growers from the Jaíba region, in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, the first container of fruit should be exported by January 2011.
Aside from the Arabs, the Europeans are also a target for the Brazilian product. "The foreign market is not familiar with lady’s finger banana," says Jorge Duarte de Oliveira, director of Central Exporta Minas, an organization of the state’s government in charge of fostering exports. "Negotiations are underway with the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates," says the executive.
Brazil currently exports the dwarf banana variety, and the lady’s finger type, grown only in the country, is considered as having exotic flavour. Oliveira claims that he took the fruit to fairs in Germany and in Dubai, for potential importers to try it. According to him, the product was well accepted. "It has an intense flavour, better nutritional value, and is more easily digested. After being cut, it does not grow darker, and that is great for the market, which works with processed fruit," he explains.
The Jaíba region is Brazil’s leading grower of lady’s finger banana, with an annual harvest of 280,000 tonnes of the fruit, as a result of the work of approximately 250 growers. The opportunity to export was spotted early this year, when Central Exporta Minas kicked off a project for conducting an in-depth study of the market and international logistics for perishable goods, with an emphasis on fruit.
The work counted on support from the World Bank, which is collaborating for exports to start. The institution contributed US$ 300,000, which were used for hiring 11 consultants, attending trade fairs and business roundtables, and a project for establishing a perishable goods centre in the Jaíba region. The project also includes the North of Minas Fruit Growers Central (Abanorte).
According to Oliveira, some matters are still pending, such as the issue of transportation, with special maritime containers for shipping the lady’s finger banana, and other conditions for the fruit to arrive at the other side of the Atlantic in good conditions. For such, a partnership has been established with (supply central) CeasaMinas and the Federal University of Lavras.
According to the director of Central Exporta Minas, one of the great advantages of Brazilian lady’s finger banana harvested at the Jaíba is that the region is vastly irrigated, therefore it is able to produce the fruit 12 months a year. "No other country is capable of doing this," he claims.
Aside from being a sales option for the domestic offseason, the fruit’s exports should also regulate its price in Brazil. In 2009, the price of a 22-kilogram box fluctuated in between 26 Brazilian reals (US$ 14 – offseason) and 8 reals (US$ 4 – season). According to Dirceu Colares, the chairman of Abanorte, the expected export price is US$ 10. "Banana prices oscillate a lot. If we manage to export, we believe that the oscillation will decrease," he explains. Colares, who is also a grower, expects lady’s finger banana exports to be equivalent to 10% of the output.
In addition to the banana, the region also produces Tahiti lemon, which is already exported to the Arabs, and Palmer mango, which should be next in the list of products exported to the Middle East. "It is a premium, fibreless type of mango, which calls for aerial logistics," explains Oliveira. He claims that these three fruit constitute the priority for the Arab market, but that exotic fruits may be worked with as well, such as the atemoya, which is a larger variety of Annona coriacea with less seeds, guava, and fruit pulp for factories.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
