Colombia continues gaining ground in the global avocado market; a market in which it competes against Peru, South Africa, Chile, Israel, and Kenya. Last year, Colombia’s avocado sales increased by 188%.
The European Union is one of the buyer markets of this fruit, and it imports over 1,200 million dollars per year of the Hass variety. Colombia has a very small share of this market (only 0.3 percent), and domestic producers are determined to continue increasing their sales to Europe with the support of ProColombia and by taking advantage of the free trade agreement Colombia has with the EU, in force for almost three years.
Maria Claudia Lacouture, president of ProColombia, said the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, and France are the main buyers of Hass avocado, a variety that has become fashionable in the last six years.
The increase in avocado consumption is due to the tendency to consume healthy convenient products, mainly in France, Spain, Germany, and the UK.
No access to the US
Colombia does not export avocado to the United States because it still doesn’t have the health permits to export it as fresh fruit, even though it can export its pulp.
Colombia has been negotiating the health permits for the export of avocados to the United States for four years. One of the requirements satisfied by the country is the creation of a national committee called Corpohass, which comprises 60 producers and exporters of Hass avocado from Cundinamarca , Risaralda, Quindio, Caldas, Tolima, Valle and Antioquia. Expectations are that the country will have all the permissions to access the US by 2017.
Colombia produces avocado throughout the whole year because of the different production areas, altitudes, and varieties in the country. 30% of the country’s production is of the Hass variety.
350,000 tons
According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Colombia produces around 350,000 tons of avocados in nearly 50,000 hectares.
Avocado production is mainly concentrated in the departments of Tolima and Antioquia, as they account for 49% of the country’s total production.
The department of Tolima is the most productive department in the country and it produces the three main varieties of avocado: papelillo, Creole and Hass.
