Banana export sector seeks to exceed 375 million boxes of fruit

Exceeding 375 million boxes of bananas in the remainder of this year is the challenge for the fruit export sector.

So far in 2021, the union has maintained a decrease in the volume of exports due to the conditioning of internal and external factors, which have caused a negative performance of between -1.5% and -3.4% in the output of musaceae.

For Juan José Pons, coordinator of the union, “the implementation of alliances can become the main route of recovery and growth of the banana industry. Boosting competitiveness fosters the sustainable progress of musaceae exports ”.

According to the AEBE statistical department, for most of 2021 banana exports were below the level reached in 2020.

However, this trend changed in October, the month in which it maintained the best performance compared to the other periods of the year, presenting a considerable increase compared to the same period in 2020.

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The growth for this month (October) is 16.2% and 315.7 million boxes were exported until that month. Compared to the same period in 2020, around 8.6 million fewer boxes have been shipped, representing a reduction of 2.7%.

Among the main causes that have caused a significant reduction in banana exports are climatic factors and the tax burden that the sector currently maintains, which is $ 470 million.

José Antonio Hidalgo, executive director of AEBE, emphasized that “these internal and external circumstances have significantly affected the banana industry, however, we hope that they can be compensated by the national government through urgent measures, such as the drawback (regime through which exporting companies can obtain the refund of import taxes paid), the reduction of the foreign exchange tax (ISD) and the reduction of the tariff to 170 items (proposal sent by the agro-export sector to the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fishing, on July 21, 2021) ”. (I)