The behavior of banana harvests has presented different variations in recent months given the costs of inputs and the value at which the product is being purchased. According to him Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentthis fruit is the one with the highest production volume in the country.
(Banana producers, on alert due to low international prices).
Data from the Agriculture portfolio show that bananas presented a total production of 2,413,768 tons in 2021 and have a projection of around more than 2,490,000 tons for 2022 according to DCAF calculations, which would present an increase of 2 % compared to the previous year. Likewise, the ministry estimated with data from the National Statistics Administration Department (Dane), that the participation of the value of banana production in the total agricultural GDP was 5.3%.
Likewise, according to the portfolio, the banana sector generates 293,648 direct and indirect jobs throughout the country. Therefore, the entity also estimates that there are 35,139 families in Colombia, in 22 departments and 204 municipalities in the country, who depend on this activity in their daily lives.
From the Banana Association of Magdalena and La Guajira (Asbama) It is ensured that the producers of the Colombian Caribbean have demonstrated their capacity for work and technical progress in the development of cultivation activities, thus managing to maintain production levels for the export of the fruit, despite the world scenario, with challenges such as value of inputs and pressure from some international buyers to lower the price of a box of bananas.
According to figures from the entity, in a comparative analysis between the years 2021 and 2022, a growth of 7% is shown compared to the fruit produced for export for the period from January to July, going from 24,300,869 boxes of 20 kilograms to 25,997 .908. This dynamic contrasts with the national scenario, which shows a reduction of 6.5%, with a reduction of 3.7 million boxes.
José Francisco Zúñiga, executive president of Asbama, stated that “Although Magdalena, La Guajira and Cesar have positive figures regarding the production and export of bananas, there is much concern about the profitability of the business for the producers of the fruit, since the market conditions are seriously impacted by the high prices of the inputs and the high investments required to comply with the certifications in order to be able to market in international markets”.
(Local banana and flower market will not replace the external one).
Similarly, from the Association of Banana Growers of Colombia (Augura), it was estimated that the production of boxes for export to June was 61,174,385, presenting a growth of 13.9%, compared to the same period of 2021, where they produced 53,700,352 cases.
Emerson Aguirre Medina, president of Augura, assures that the indicators show that there is an increase in volume of about 14%, but that in value it was 12%, which means that its affiliates, marketers and producers, have had to export more volume of fruit, but with a lower price for the sale of the product.
“We are going through a crisis as a sector due to the rise in the costs of inputs for the production and export processes. This is added to other factors generated by the pandemic, the container crisis, the uncertainty due to the global recession and the war between Russia and Ukraine”said the director of Augura.
Aguirre assures that there is an expectation that the international process will help to obtain a better negotiation in the price of the fruit by 2023 and that this will contribute to balancing the loads and safeguarding the production of the fruit, taking into account that Colombian bananas It is desired abroad.
According to the Augura Banana Situation report, the hectares planted with bananas in Colombia for 2021 were 52,270, increasing production by 816 hectares compared to the result presented in 2020, which was 51,454.. According to the association, the growth was especially noticeable in the Magdalena, Guajira and Cesar regions.
Likewise, according to the document, the hectares in production for 2021 in Urabá reached 34,770 cultivated areas, however, this had a decrease compared to the figure presented in 2020, which was 35,440 hectares in production.
The opposite occurred with the region of Magdalena and La Guajira, which for 2021, presented a figure of 17,500 hectares produced, while for 2020, this figure was lower, with 16,014 hectares.
According to the Price Index of Agricultural Inputs of the Agricultural Rural Planning Unit (UPRA), the accumulated variation for the total prices so far in 2022 was 32.6%, while for the months of January to June of 2021 the increase was 17.30%.
(Colombian banana harvests its fruits in South Korea).
Similarly, the value of fertilizers and pesticides grew on average in the month of June 2022 by 0.65% compared to the previous month, a figure that was lower than that observed in the same month of 2021, which was estimated at 2.58%. For the period between July 2021 and June 2022, the accumulated variation was 103.3%, exceeding that of two years ago (2020-2021), which had a result of 14.5%.
Diana K. Rodriguez T.
