Dramatic and hopefully temporary banana supply issues

The Packer's Pamela Riemenschneider has coverage of the banana market in the March 3 issue, and below is a statement from Chiquita she passed along to me about the reasons behind the shorter supply and spiking prices:

CINCINNATI – Feb. 26, 2008 – As widely reported, a series of dramatic adverse weather conditions throughout Central America, as well as prolonged rainfall and major flooding throughout the banana growing areas of Ecuador, have substantially reduced the industry-wide availability of bananas that supply both the North American and European market. Due to these industry-wide conditions, Chiquita Brands International, Inc. is working with its customers to take steps that will enable the company to continue providing fruit in as fair and reasonable manner as possible.
While the company believes these steps are an appropriate response to these dramatic and hopefully temporary supply issues, the devastation within Ecuador has been substantial and it is not possible to assess at this time when industry volumes may recover from this severe shortage. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency on February 20th, and has ordered troops to help thousands of flood evacuees. An estimated 25,000 hectares have been destroyed and up to 80,000 affected, according to the ministry of agriculture. In addition to heavy rainfalls, cloudy and lower than average temperatures are delaying the maturation of fruit by as much as five weeks. Elsewhere, the 2007 tropical storm season caused significant disruption to several banana producing islands in the Caribbean and destroyed thousands of hectares of production across the Dominican Republic. Adverse weather conditions have also led to decreases in productivity in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.