Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Amérique Latine - Caraïbes / Latin America - Caribbean : J. Orozco Romero
International market
Producer
Wholesaler
National supplying market
Medium wholesaler
Retail market
or
Retailer
Consumer
Figure 4. Marketing channels for bananas and plantains in Mexico.
Intermediary
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Around 5% of the total national banana and plantain production is exported as fresh
fruit. The average exports were approximately 118,000 tons in 1997 (Table 5), 65% of
which was sent to the United States and the remaining to Bermudas and Japan. With
respect to the international marketing, two marketing channels exist that are also
characterised by the type of producer:
Producer trader. This type of producer generates important fruit volumes and has a
capacity to make settlements with large transnational companies as “Chiquita
International Limited”, “Del Monte”, or through brokers. This type of marketing has two
modalities: the producer delivers the fruit at the packing station to the refrigerated
transport, from where it is carried in containers to the terminal markets, or brings his
product to the border line. In both cases, the price is established every six months.