BRIEFS. business

Banana exporter in danger of bankruptcy

Operations at Coosemupar, the country’s main independent banana exporter, have been at a standstill for three months now while a series of measures to prevent bankruptcy have systematically failed.

Recently, Coosemupar’s plan to list the cooperative on the futures market of the National Stock Exchange fell through, imperiling contracts promising fruit yields as far in advance as mid-2009.

Salustiano Degracia, union secretary for the Chiriquí Land Company, explained that 3,200 hectares of plantations have already started to deteriorate as a result of lax maintenance, something that he predicted would only worsen with the onset of summer.