In 2019, banana sales grew 29.1% compared to 2018, “According to data provided by the Regional Agriculture Directorate (DRA), in 2019, 21,644.5 tons of bananas were sold in the first sale, 4,885.0 tons more than in 2018, which represents a relative increase of 29.1%”.
He also mentions that “the main reason for this increase was in climatic conditions conducive to the development of production, thus leading, after 2017, to the second highest value in the last 20 years”, with emphasis on the extra category banana that “registered an increase of 55.5%, while the 1st and 2nd category bananas fell 2.3% and 24.3%, respectively ”.
Increasingly for export
“Of the total bananas sold in the year under review, 84.7% were shipped with the main destination being Mainland (81.0% in 2018). In turn, the extra category banana accounted for 73.8% of the total traded (61.2% in 2018), reaching 15,963.7 tonnes traded ”, he points out, the highest value in the statistical series started in 1998 and surpassing 2017 ( 15,129.1 tonnes).
“September was the month of 2019 in which the highest amount of bananas traded (2,894.9 tonnes) was recorded and February was the one with the lowest abundance of this product (816.5 tonnes)”, he points out, just as the Diario had already reported with data made available by GESBA, which until that month had already grown 25% and revealed that 2019 already exceeded the production of six of the last 14 years.
Thus, “September and July were the months with the highest year-on-year increase (+ 90.4% and + 65.0%, respectively)”, confirms DREM. “From January to April there were always year-on-year monthly decreases, with an emphasis on the months of February and January with more significant reductions in the marketing of bananas (-31.9% and -28.6%, respectively)”.