Honoring the 200,000th GLOBALG.A.P. certified producer

History of My Career as a Producer of Plátano Barraganete

I am César Rodolfo Navarrete Zambrano, resident of the Las Palmitas de Agua Sucia community of El Carmen, province of Manabí-Ecuador. I can say that my whole life I have lived in the agricultural sector. I am the son of farmers, and married Carmen Mercedes Mendoza, who is also the daughter of farmers.

Worked with local distributors

In the year of 1995, together with my wife, we acquired a plot of land that was roughly 7 hectares, where we grew plantain bananas. Since then, I have been selling this product to the Colombian market. In those early years, the product was sold in classified clusters. After a couple of years, the sale of boxes began, to the same market. During this time, the process for the sale was simple, and due to this, the clusters were not enfolded. I have always worked with local distributors.

Constant improvement

I have constantly sought to improve my farm, improve the product, innovating in terms of the management of the crop and sales process. In this way, in 1999, the company started with enfolding the clusters, which resulted in a better product and a higher sales price, so we were able to export boxes to international markets. With the enfolding of the cluster, a production register is started in order to control the age of the clusters and offer a better-quality product.

The government in 2000 launched a technical advisory project called PRONSA , where I took part in, with some other companies of the sector. This was where the idea arose to create a corporation called CORPICSUPAL by means of which one begins to look for a better price with the companies. In this same year my wife received 4 hectares from an inheritance, we also managed to buy 4 hectares more, which resulted in 15 hectares in total.

In search of better marketing prices we joined with two more corporations, in order to send a container per week to the United States, but as the saying goes "The big fish eats the little one". It did not go well, causing economic losses, which caused the organizations to disintegrate.

Working with Dole Brand

From 2002 until 2010, I worked with the Dole Brand, selling the product to a distributor. In 2011, there was the opportunity to meet the representatives of the company COL BANANO, Ing. Enrique Herrera and Ing. Bonel López. I requested a quota to deliver my production and they gave me one. From that year on, the engineers sent the group of technicians they had at their service to improve my plantation and be more productive, by means of the elaboration of organic fertilizers like Bioles and Bocachi, to contribute to the environment and reduce the application of agrochemicals.

A farm in optimal conditions

In all these years of conducting trade with this company, I have had security, tranquility and stability due to their responsible handling. Thanks to the company COLBANANO I have progressed in these years and now I have a farm in optimal conditions, and, in addition, a storage center (parking) in accordance with export regulations. Seeing my commitment to improve day by day, said company proposes to start the process of an International certification (GLOBALG.A.P.), which I received on 12/25/2018. And something that I thought impossible, that a small producer like me, could obtain a certification (GLOBALG.A.P.) became true. I also did not expect to get a GLOBALG.A.P. recognition, because of being the 200,000 ^th producer, and much less expected the visit of the officials of this entity, like that of Dr. Angelo Lazo and Mr. Jesús Alcantara.

I am always grateful to God and the Virgin Mary for having the opportunity to be part of the GLOBALG.A.P. family. Without the support of my wife, daughters, sons-in-law, nephews and all COLBANANO collaborators, it would not have been possible to obtain the certification.

Photo: GLOBALG.A.P.