The Colombian agricultural sector found another product to boost its exports of non-traditional products. The product: Hass avocado, a product that has been gaining markets. The last client that opened its doors to this national product is Argentina.
Why is it important for the country? This opening is important for the country because of the increased opportunities to locate the national production in the Argentine market, which is the most important import market of the Latin American region and the 18 most important import market worldwide with purchases of 43.3 million dollars in 2017. This value is approximately 10% of what Colombia produces and sells.
Would this be a gateway to reach other South American countries? Other countries in the south, in particular Chile, Peru, and Brazil, are large producers and exporters of Hass avocado, which significantly limits the possibility that they could become markets for the Colombian product.
However, the admissibility of this product in Argentina does make it possible to logistically integrate smaller markets, such as Uruguay.
What future awaits the Hass avocado in Latin America? The future of this product in Latin America depends a lot on the decisions that Mexico, the main supplier of this product in world, makes and on the capacity that new emerging players, such as Colombia, have to expand their production base and serve some niche markets with differentiating mechanisms.
From 2017 to 2018, the area cultivated with Hass avocado has increased by 15.04% and the volume produced in the country by 23.7%, implicitly, yields have increased by more than 8%.
However, Colombia only represents 6% of the area sown worldwide, which according to the Ministry of Agriculture is 73,986 hectares that generate 403,184 tons.
Is it possible to reach the US market considering that Mexico is also an avocado producer, and, due to logistics costs, a direct competitor of Colombia? In logistic terms, it is difficult to overcome the relative advantage of Mexico's proximity to the US market, but it can be compensated by increasing yields per hectare and a product quality that allows differentiating the Colombian product in the world export basket.
Source: portafolio.co