The sales figures achieved by Plátano de Canarias in early 2018 have reached record levels, with more than 51,200,000 kilos marketed in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and exported to foreign destinations.
Production figures have also experienced significant growth, increasing by 21% over the same period in 2017, reaching around 12 million kilos more than in 2017. Faced with this strong and unexpected increase, the sector has made a real effort to give a boost to the demand and the marketing of Canary bananas, exporting over 8 million kilos more than in the same period of the previous year (+16%).
The changes in the weather conditions that have been recorded in recent years have caused a significant increase in banana production, which has been a huge challenge for the sector. Work has focused on achieving a common goal: giving a boost to the marketing and consumption of bananas from the Canary Islands.
The most likely scenario for 2018 is to have similar production and marketing levels as those of 2017, thus exceeding the figures of recent years. A total of about 430 million kilos have been produced in recent times and over 390 million kilos have been either sold in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands or exported, with another nearly 38 million kilos marketed in the Canary Islands.
According to Domingo Martín, president of ASPROCAN, "increasing the marketing figures and the minimum profitability levels for the vast majority of producers from one year to the next, while the production volume increases by over 20%, is a challenge for any agro-food sector. In 2018, we must try to continue giving a boost to the demand and consumption of Canary bananas. There needs to be an investment in promotions and we have to find new markets able to absorb the extra volumes."
Market share - January 2018
According to data from Kantar Worldpanel, the source of information used by the Ministry of Agriculture for the estimation of national consumption in Spanish households, the market share of Canary bananas in the month of January 2018 stood at 73.6%.
In this period, the consumption of bananas (both domestic and imported) in Spanish households went from 41,299,620 kilos in 2017 to 44,382,120 kilos in January 2018. The consumption of Canary bananas rose from 30,272,621 kilos in 2017 to 32,665,240 kilos in 2018. Thus, Canary bananas absorbed 80% of the consumption growth in its category.
In this same period of 2018, the average consumer price of Canary bananas and imported banana was € 1.82 and € 1.19, respectively.