World banana exports grow 1.7% driven by Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colombia

According to the FAO / OECD Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 report, the first estimates are that world banana exports, excluding bananas (pink bananas or male bananas), reached a new record in 2020, amounting to 22, 2 million tons, that is, 1.7% more than the previous year. Exports were driven mainly by Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia, three of the top five exporters in the world. All three countries are said to have implemented disease mitigation strategies on their plantations at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and thus could have minimized the disruption of their ability to supply bananas to world markets. According to current baseline projections, if weather conditions are normal and banana diseases do not spread, global banana production is expected to increase by 1.4% per year to reach 138 million tonnes by 2030. FAO and OECD expect that increased import demand will also benefit some Caribbean exporters, particularly the Dominican Republic and Belize, as well as African ...