Ahead of Fruit Attraction 2026 in Madrid (October 6–8), Colombia's banana associations AUGURA and ASBAMA are warning that a combination of climate damage, currency pressure, and rising costs is squeezing an industry that sustains more than 200,000 direct jobs. In 2026, floods damaged over 1,200 hectares of banana cultivation and windstorms a further 3,000, bringing the total area affected by weather to more than 4,200 hectares; on the strength of this damage, the associations project industry-wide productivity could fall by roughly 20%. That decline would compound an already difficult cost picture: the Colombian peso's appreciation against the US dollar is reducing the local-currency value of an industry that depends heavily on export revenue, while rising fertiliser and input prices, the investment needed to meet international certification and traceability standards, and a near-23% increase in the minimum wage for 2026 are all adding to producers' expenses. A lower harvest would leave fixed costs spread across fewer boxes, and farms hit by storms face further outlays to repair plantations and infrastructure. The outlook for coming months adds to the uncertainty: Colombia's Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) has put the probability of El Niño strengthening to an intensity not seen in decades at 75%, raising the prospect of reduced rainfall and heightened water stress for a crop that depends on consistent water availability and temperature.

For more than 38 years, Colombian banana producers and workers have built a model of social dialogue and collective bargaining that AUGURA and ASBAMA say has delivered formal employment, stability, and improved living conditions across the country's growing regions. "Colombia has demonstrated that it is possible to produce bananas with formal employment, social dialogue, and high sustainability standards. Our message to the European value chain is that this model must also be economically viable. We cannot continue to absorb ever-increasing costs without progress in the shared responsibility of all market actors," said Emerson Aguirre Medina, Executive President of AUGURA. Meeting European expectations, the associations note, requires funding not just wages and social protection but infrastructure, certifications, traceability, environmental safeguards, plant health, and climate adaptation — costs they do not dispute but say must be discussed openly in a strained economic environment. José Francisco Zúñiga Cotes, Executive President of ASBAMA, which represents producers and marketers in Magdalena, Cesar, and La Guajira, framed the issue as one of shared commitment rather than price alone: "It's not just about the cost of producing a box of bananas; it's about the type of value chain we want to build moving forward and how committed Europe is to maintain a model that creates formal employment, protects the environment, and supports entire communities in our regions. Colombia is eager to remain a reliable supplier of sustainably produced bananas for Europe, but we must evolve this relationship to ensure the value of our products reflects the effort, investment, and risk involved."

At Fruit Attraction, AUGURA and ASBAMA plan to open discussions with supermarkets, importers, commercial companies, and European bulk buyers on how value, costs, and risk should be distributed across the chain, arguing that fruit pricing should not be treated as a purely commercial figure disconnected from the investment behind it. The associations are careful to frame the push as neither a simple demand for higher prices nor an attempt to offload costs onto another part of the chain, but as a call for the entire value chain to recognise that sustainability carries a cost whose financing responsibility should be shared — a principle they say will determine whether Colombia can keep sustaining decent livelihoods and environmental standards through a year marked by over 4,200 hectares of climate damage and a still-uncertain productivity outlook.