The central banana-producing entity in the Canary Islands (which groups 31% of the offer), the firm Coplaca, a producer organization (OPP) which is also a second-degree cooperative society, has just presented its economic results for what all local fruit producers consider a terrible year. From these records, disseminated this Tuesday in a note by the commercial entity, it is concluded that the farmers attached to such OPP marketed 134,000 tons last year, a global amount sold at the average value per kilo in green of 1.04 euros. Coplaca farmers produced 146,000 tons in 2023, which remained at 134,000 tons marketed when this entity assumed a pica or withdrawal from the fruit market of up to 9,700 tons.

These official data confirm that the average profitability per hectare of the banana growers who marketed in 2023 through the OPP Coplaca was 45.6 tons (3,200 hectares were in production), a figure far from the threshold of 65 tons that the Ministry of Agriculture projects as the maximum permissible level to receive direct aid to the banana from the European Union (E.U.), included in the Posei program (141.1 million euros per year).

According to the same statistical source, just over 50%, precisely 70.6 tons, of the volume of kilos marketed in 2023 (134,000 tons) were charged a dividend (the holders of that fruit and shareholders of the company) from the commercial Coplaca de Inversiones, SL, at a rate of 6.6 cents per kilo.

This means that the rest of the production (63,400 tons), outside the share capital of that company, did not benefit from such an asset, even though this part also contributes, for example, to reducing maturation costs abroad since all the banana from Coplaca is sold through the multinational Eurobanan (the OPP Coplaca controls, through Coplaca de Inversiones, SL, half of the share capital -50%- of that international society).

Given this situation, it can be concluded that within Coplaca, approximately half of the production takes advantage of the extra income related to the benefits obtained by Coplaca de Inversiones, which come from Europe. Then there is the other half, to which nothing of that monetary contribution flows by not being part of that shareholding of those who produce this other banana. The first ones entered as an average of 1.04 euros per kilo in green plus 6.6 cents per kilo of dividend, and the second ones only 1.04 euros.

3,200 banana farmers and 16 cooperatives and SAT on all islands

The regional group of Banana Cooperatives of the Canary Islands (Coplaca) was born in 1970 in Santa Cruz de La Palma. Coplaca comprises 16 cooperatives and agricultural transformation societies (SAT), located on all the archipelago islands as banana producers.

With the entry into force of the banana OCM in July 1993, Coplaca adapted its statutes and organizational structure to the requirements of a banana producer organization (OPP). Later, it adapted to comply with the regulations that recognized it as an OPFH (fruit and vegetable producer organization) in 2002 to expand its offer and distribution to other fruits.

The Coplaca cooperative also participates in 40% of the share capital of Cultesa, a Tenerife firm dedicated, among other activities, to obtaining banana plants.

Coplaca has more than 3,200 banana producers on the five islands of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, and Gran Canaria, which have cultivation. It is the largest OPP in the E.U., both in number of producers and in volume of kilos marketed. In 2023, it exceeded 134,000 tons, which allowed it to achieve a turnover of 140 million euros (the total production of that OPP, not considering the fruit disposed, was 146,000 tons).

The banana cultivation area in Coplaca reaches 3,200 hectares, and all the production is marketed through Eurobanan, a multinational company with a comprehensive and extensive network of maturation and logistics centres distributed throughout the peninsular territory (Portugal and Spain).

The Europeans participated in its business with the banana.

The European group was constituted on July 1, 1993, and is participated by Coplaca de Inversiones (which is not the entire second-degree cooperative Coplaca) at 50%. This multinational has become the second-largest company in Spain dedicated to marketing and distributing all kinds of fruits and is the undisputed leader in the maturation and sale of Canary Island bananas. Eurobanan also imports bananas from third origins, the fruit that competes with the Canary Island banana in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. This company controls more than 10% of the market for bananas from third origins in those same destinations.

Last year, Eurobanan's turnover reached 630 million euros, of which 140 million were from Canary Island bananas. The rest comes from the range of fruits of all origins and provenances this company sells, including bananas. Eurobanan's benefits return to the islands through the company Coplaca de Inversiones, SL, created in 2004.

This company held its general shareholders meeting on May 21 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the 2023 accounts were presented and approved. At that meeting, it was also agreed to distribute 4.66 million euros in dividends among the company's shareholders, equivalent to 112 cents per euro per share or 6.6 cents per euro per kilo of banana marketed (70.6 million kilos).

The central banana-producing entity in the Canary Islands invoices 140 million in the "bad year" 2023 by selling the kilo in green at 1.04 euros.