Due to the effect of climatic phenomena at the beginning of the year, in the first five months of 2018, banana sales abroad amounted to US$410 million, 9% less than was reported in the same period in 2017.
According to data from the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (Procomer), a comparison between the period between January and May 2017 and the same in 2018 shows that the value of banana sales abroad fell by 9%, going from $448 million to $410 million.
For the periods in question, the volume sold also reported a decrease of 9%, falling from one million tons in the first five months of 2017 to 972,000 tons from January to May 2018.
Regarding the factors behind the decline in sales, Jorge Sauma, general manager of the National Banana Corporation (Corbana), explained to Nacion.com that ” … at the beginning of the year the effects of cold fronts that caused some flooding were felt in banana regions. The plantations, he explained, were affected for several months.”
Regarding what the producers expect in the coming months, Sauma explains that ” … banana farms recovered from the impact of the cold fronts and the decrease in heat units, therefore the impact was temporary and not a structural problem for productive activity.”
