Bolivian banana producers seek new export markets

According to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), Bolivian banana producers must work to…

According to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), Bolivian banana producers must work to recover the sector and have to search for market alternatives to increase exports of this product.

As reported by the representative of Expoban, Javier Gomez, the economic situation in Argentina is affecting banana exports in Bolivia. In addition, the quality of the Bolivian banana has decreased while the quality of other producing countries, such as Paraguay, has improved. Bolivian bananas were once the second-best in Latin America, but now they rank third and fourth place below Paraguay, Gomez said.

There's a lack of markets
70% of the bananas exported are sent to Argentina. However, sales started to decrease, as they went from $39.3 million dollars in 2017 to $33 million in 2018. That's a 15% decrease, according to IBCE data.

The president of the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Cochabamba (FEPC), Javier Bellott, said that Argentina was an interesting market a few years ago. However, due to the ongoing crisis, they needed to start looking to sell in other countries. In addition, it is recurrent to find Chilean banana in the markets.

Given the need to improve product quality, producers are working on a plan to present to the Government, which involves requesting support in equipment and preventing floods from generating losses in the harvest, Gomez said. Bellott also said they were also working on project to modernize production. "We have to start developing strategies to improve our productivity by incorporating technological systems that help producers increase their yields and their product's quality," said the president of the FEPC.