Costa Rica's banana industry sees 2024 with "uncertainty" due to logistical and climatic problems, as well as the position of European supermarkets to request discounts of up to 8% in the price of the fruit. 

"For 2024 there is strong uncertainty in terms of logistical aspects due to the situation of the Panama Canal that could affect everyone, both users and non-users. Added to this is the El Niño phenomenon which is expected and could have global consequences," the Costa Rican National Banana Corporation (Corbana) said in a statement. 

Corbana demanded better prices in Europe, especially from supermarkets, and they need to return to the strategy of low purchase prices they had recently tried. 

"Hundreds of thousands of families in Costa Rica and Latin America depend on banana activity and exports, their sustainability is of utmost importance for areas that have few labor options, so we are requesting an attitude of shared responsibility that allows the impact to be distributed throughout the supply chain and that it is not the producers who assume all the burden," Corbana's general manager, Jorge Sauma, said in the statement. 

Corbana also explained that a significant increase in raw materials to manufacture the cardboard box has been announced. He added that the prices of inputs such as cardboard and plastic have yet to return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. 

"With the events that occurred for 2023, the banana industry considered that supermarkets had reconsidered not to take the price of the box of bananas to ruinous levels, and that they had understood the request of Costa Rica and other Latin American countries for shared responsibility in the banana distribution chain," Corbana's statement said. 

The most recent official data indicate that as of October 2023, banana exports reached 985 million dollars and exceeded what was recorded during 2022, when they were 982 million dollars. 

#sopisconews #banana #banano #bananatrade #bananastatistic