Historically, the Costa Rican banana industry has had to face various difficulties. However, currently, the industry has managed to solve some conflicts and remains focused on solving problems such as climate change and diseases.
"Regarding production, we've been able to keep the same volume in a slightly smaller area, so we've had to improve productivity," said Jorge Sauma, Corbana's CEO, in an interview.
"Costa Rica needs to have a high productivity because we are competing with countries that have a lower social and environmental responsibility. That is, we are giving our workers more benefits and have a higher responsibility with the environment, which we would expect everyone else to do as it is common sense," he added.
Currently, the banana industry is the country's main agricultural export crop, generating approximately $823 million dollars and creating 40,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs.
Asked about the competition with other banana exporting countries and the issue of tariffs, Sauma commented that, "nearly 30% of Latin America's banana production was left out of the European Union with the regulation 404 of 1993-1994. After that, we had an arbitration and various intermediate mechanisms until we reached the Association Agreement, where there is a gradual reduction of tariffs."
"Costa Rica is currently part of the Association Agreement. We have a good contingent to enter a gradual tariff reduction mechanism, which allows us to access the market in good shape," he said.
According to Corbana's CEO, other difficulties faced by the banana industry are climate change and the constant struggle against the black sigatoka.
It should be noted that, historically, Costa Rica has exported their bananas to the EU and the U.S. Other destinations are Russia and the Middle East, and, according to Sauma, they expect to open new markets.
"We want to open new markets, there is potential in the UAE and, of course, we want to increase the consumption of bananas. We have an image campaign of the banana from Costa Rica that is based on its social and environmental aspects, and we are also making some other promotional efforts."
Source: portalfruticola.com