Europe Breaks Costa
Rican Threshold
Europe broke the 50 per cent threshold for
Costa Rica’s banana intake for the first
time in history, according to preliminary
figures based on documents approved by Costa
Rica’s Customs Office. The EU remained the
biggest importer of Costa Rica bananas for
the second consecutive year, taking in more
than half (53.5 per cent) of the country’s
total banana exports.
Costa Rica exported 46.5 million boxes to
the EU in 2009, compared with 51.3m boxes in
2008, representing a 9.4 per cent decrease
or 4.8m boxes less than in 2008, but still
less than the 15.8 per cent overall decline
in global exports.
For the last two years, bad weather
conditions have affected the production
performance of the Costa Rican banana
sector. The first half of 2008 was marked by
droughts, while the second half saw a
considerable increase in rain, leading to
severe floods in November 2008, which had
serious consequences for banana production.
2009 was also irregular, with significant
floods in February. Both incidents destroyed
around 4,500 hectares (around 10 per cent of
the total banana crop area), which were out
of production until their rehabilitation.
Jorge Sauma, chief executive of Corbana,
told freshinfo: “The performance of the UK
market as a buyer and consumer of our fruit
is satisfactory as demonstrated by the fact
that it has gained prominence in the imports
of Costa Rica bananas. At the beginning of
the current decade the UK was the sixth-most
important destination for our bananas,
absorbing five per cent of Costa Rica’s
global banana exports and 11 per cent of
exports to the EU.
"Currently the UK is the fourth-largest
destination for Costa Rican bananas –
following the US, Belgium and Italy –
representing eight per cent of total exports
and 15 per cent of the total volume sent to
the EU. Total Costa Rican banana exports to
the UK reached 6.9m boxes in 2009.
“We expect a significant recovery in 2010,
given that the plantations affected by
floods in November 2008 and February 2009
have been rehabilitated and are currently
under full production. Even if it is
impossible to predict the weather behaviour
for 2010, we expect a substantial
improvement compared with 2008-09, with
adequate temperature conditions and equal
distribution of rains throughout the year –
we don’t foresee any events of great
magnitude such as droughts and floods. Under
such conditions we expect a huge improvement
in terms of production and exports in 2010,
with a projection of 107m boxes of bananas –
that is, a 21.5 per cent increase on 2009
figures.”
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