North America Edition
Colombia is worldwide renown as one of the biggest avocado producers. According to information from the FAO the crop covers a cultivation area of nearly 25,000 acres. Only Mexico and Chile have a larger cultivation area. In the past, however, only indigenous varieties were grown which were not suitable for export, so reports the German Agricultural Information Bureau (AMI) on their website. Although Columbia have around a 5% share of worldwide avocado production only 0.01% is traded globally.
This should, however, change in the future. In recent years numerous trees of the Hass variety have been planted. They will grow in Columbia on approximately 9,000 acres. Most of this, namely 6,000 acres will go into first production this year. Between October 2013 and April 2014 they expect a harvest volume of 40,000 tons. Most of the Hass avocados are currently sold on the domestic market. Only 2,000 of the 40,000 tons are exported. Missing documentation and high rejection rates presently stand in the way of higher export volumes. The most important export markets are the US and Europe.
