Avocados were one of the products making news during the state visit of Colombian President Iván Duque to China, since it was confirmed that this market would be opening to the Colombian production. The goal, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, is for the country to compete head to head with Mexico, Peru and Chile in this market, which is worth US $ 136 million.
Colombian avocados are already shipped to several destinations, with the Netherlands being the main one. According to Analdex statistics, about 57% of Colombia's avocados were exported to that country in 2018, up from the 35.64% of the previous year.
In fact, as exporters explain, the European market is currently the main destination for Colombia's avocado shipments, which is why the opening of the US market a couple of years ago and the successful progress made in Japan, China and South Korea have been welcome by the sector.
“The issue is positive from a commercial point of view because of the diversification of our markets,” said Fruty Green general manager Ricardo Mejía.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, work is also underway to open markets like Chile, India, Mexico and Peru to Colombian avocados.
In any case, China remains the big bet for domestic exporters, taking into account that this country's imports currently come mostly from three suppliers: Chile, Peru and Mexico.
"The United States and Europe are mature markets that are also very large in terms of volume, but the future of consumption is in China. The latter is small compared to the two former territories, but will become a huge market because of the size of its population, an emerging middle class, the adoption of western customs, the fruit's promotion and a tremendous dynamism in the distribution,” said the director of Corpohass, Jorge Restrepo.
However, at present, in addition to the Netherlands, the other market that absorbs much of Colombian avocado exports is the United Kingdom, which accounted for approximately 20% of the total. Lastly, Spain imported 11% of the total volume.
Source: agronegocios.co
