Maersk Group has published a new trade report about the refrigerated container transport that drives the foreign trade of Colombia. With the highlights that refrigerated exports to Europe has a 64% growth, which compensates the 12% drop towards China and 9% less to Latin America. An increase in imports from the US and neighbouring countries, which has led to a 2% growth in intra-Americas containerized trade. As well, the report states that by the end of 2016 a stable growth of 3% is expected in the Colombian foreign trade. Juan Camilo Vásquez, Colombia sales manager for Maersk Line, mentions in the report that in 2015 the refrigerated exports made up about 12% of the total foreign trade in containers. This number has increased to 21% already, mainly because of the increase in shipments of pineapples and bananas. However, other fruit shipments have increased 51% this year, for example mango, golden berries and gulupas. Export to Europe has grown 64% with mainly shipments of fruit. Representative markets such as Belgium, UK and Germany purchased Colombian fruit, like bananas and avocados. Pineapple exports have increased tremendously, as Colombian producers are using know- how to increase their productivity and diversify their products.
Yenia Abadía, Colombia Cluster manager for SeaLand, explains that, as the peso has devalued against the dollar and the Euro, Colombian importers are looking for import alternatives. This resulted in an increase of imports from other Latin American countries. North America remains an important export destination, for example, because of its geographic proximity and more stable currency.
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