SOURCE: Juan Carlos Rivera, Laprensa
Bananas, one of the agricultural products most affected by storms Eta and Iota in November 2020, generated $419.4 million between January and July 2023, showing with this figure a clear recovery of plantations and growth compared to the resounding decline recorded in 2021.
After the passage of these two tropical storms, between January and July 2021, banana exports fell to $157.5 million due to the sale in the international market of some 8.6 million 40-pound boxes (at a price of $18.26), 50% less than the 19 million exported until August 2020, two months before the two natural phenomena hit the northern coast of the country.
This year, until July, the banana sector, made up of independent producers and the companies Chiquita and Dole, sent more than 16 million boxes sold to the international market at an average price of $25.71, according to data from the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH ).
Strengthened, with production approaching pre-Eta and Iota levels, banana exporters are taking advantage of a higher price per box this year than the averages received in the same period of previous years, 2018 ($17.86), 2019 ($15.55), 2020 ($19.63), 2021 ($18.26) and 2022 ($21.91).
Maynor Velásquez, manager of the Association of National Banana Producers (Aprobana), explained to Diario LA PRENSA that “this growth in exports is the product of the recovery of the farms of transnational companies and about three farms of independent producers.”
“The transnationals are the ones that export the most. Of the independent producers there are only three exporters (cooperatives) that send about 54 containers a week,” he said.
Aprobana records indicate that since the end of 2020 there are more than 1,500 hectares without production; The owners have not found financing to reactivate the farms. If this area were enabled, it would provide around four million boxes. Velásquez laments that “by not having all the farms producing, Honduras is losing a great opportunity because the current climatic conditions, the heat and water through irrigation systems, are conducive to harvesting bananas.”
The strength gained by bananas boosted exports of the segment of products originating from agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing, which in this period contributed $649.2 million to the Honduran economy, $68.1 million more than in the same period of 2022.
In the agroindustry, in which products with some degree of processing are grouped, coffee leads exports with $1,173 million for more than 5.7 million 46-kilo bags sold at an average price of $202.76.
This time the number of bags exported is greater than the same period last year (more than 4.9 million bags), but the price is lower. Between January and July 2022, the international market paid an average of $243.33 per bag.