By 2024, the Colombian banana sector will have a significant growth projection thanks to the European Union's environmental, social, and labour sustainability requirements being met without any problem. 

It was pointed out by the President of Augura, Emerson Aguirre, who explained that, for example, the jobs are 100% formal, and 92% are unionised and comply with the living wage in more than 111%. 

Retailers in Germany and other European countries are making this an essential requirement to access products from the European Union, which is an advantage for our nation. 

In the first part of the year, there was a drop in exports of close to 25%, but in the second half of the year, it recovered ground against other producing countries. 

It continues with a decrease of close to 15% in volume, but it has been compensated via prices, which is why the drop is close to 1% in value. This is due to a recovery in production in the second half of the year, a more significant amount of fruit that can be offered to the market mainly from the Urabá area. 

However, there are still effects of the climatic issues, such as strong winds in the Magdalena area and the excess rainfall that continues to occur in both Urabá and Magdalena and with an incredible challenge, such as recovering the volumes exported in 2022. 

Last year, just over 111 million boxes of bananas were exported, and this figure is expected to be achieved this year, maintaining an important place as an exporter of fruit. 

They are confident that the effects of the El Niño phenomenon will not be as severe as projected to continue with these exports. "We are accompanying the producer in each of the farms, supporting them with soil studies through Cenibanano and the marketers are also helping them with lines of credit so that they can fertilise in a better way and thus have a very productive first half of 2024," he said. 

He also said that it is necessary to work hand in hand with the government on lines of credit that help robust fertilisation programs to achieve better production.