Colombia's Minister of Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica, weighed in on how the government intends to address the problem Colombian banana growers face in the European Union.

Recently, banana unions in the country said that a request from European supermarkets to pay a lower price for national bananas would generate widely negative impacts for the sector.

In response to this warning, the Minister of Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica, assured a local radio station that "this is not the first time that the issue of banana farmers' price negotiations with their buyers in Europe has arisen" and that, in the past, the European Commission has refused to intervene even though "Colombia has expressed concern about this situation." Likewise, Minister Mojica assured that the situation would be reviewed jointly with the Ministry of Commerce and the Embassy of Colombia in the E.U. to carry out some management from Brussels or raise a formal complaint by Colombia since "the new regulatory scheme of the Sustainability of the European Green Deal makes access to bananas more difficult". Finally, Minister Mojica confirmed what Augura and Asbama said: in March 2024, the World Banana Forum will be held in Rome, Italy, where the issue will be officially discussed.

Thus, to prepare for the event, the national government is analyzing how to work with the banana unions to join the necessary efforts and alleviate the situation of restrictions on access to Colombian bananas in Europe.