Innovation

Ecuador: from a "Banana Republic" to an "Innovative Republic".

About

Byron Robayo is a partner at Spingarn and one of the most experienced intellectual property, trade secret protection and technology transfer lawyers in Ecuador.

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Ecuador: from a "Banana Republic" to an "Innovative Republic".
Ecuador: from a "Banana Republic" to an "Innovative Republic".

Subject:

Innovation

Now that we are one of the most important banana exporting countries in the world, we cannot stop investing in technology to make our industry more competitive.

Ecuador: from a "Banana Republic" to an "Innovative Republic".

Bananas are considered the most exported fruit in the world in terms of both volume and economic value1 and are the third most important export product of our economy. However, it is urgent that in this revolution of innovation and knowledge, we apply science and technology to be more competitive in the world market. 

For this reason, the following are some of the innovations that have been generated to add value to the banana sector.

Precision agriculture:

A German company invented a system that allows to determine, with a heat map, the nutrients of the soil in order not to overexploit it and to make timely and efficient decisions. 

The use of drones for harvesting and spraying has lowered costs and substantially improved the profitability of banana production. In addition, the use of banana residues in cosmetics has gained much interest in recent years because of the bioactive compounds that can have benefits for skin and hair.

Now that we are one of the most important banana exporting countries in the world, we cannot stop investing in technology to make our industry more competitive and even better if we start creating emerging industries that use bananas as raw material for nutritional supplements, cosmetics, or even natural products for medicinal use. 

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Bibliography:

 1https://www.fao.org/markets-and-trade/commodities/bananos/es