According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Colombia ranks 22nd among the 223 countries in the world with the greatest potential for land expansion for agricultural use without affecting the natural forest area of the territory, with 9 million hectares still arable. This ranking is headed by China, Australia, and the United States.
One of the most outstanding advantages of the country is that it can produce fresh fruits in times when other nations have no production thanks to the climatic variety, thermal floors, and nutrient-rich lands it has.
Colombia's exotic fruit exports, which are made up of a dozen varieties, including pomegranate, soursop, gulupa, passion fruit, pitahaya, tree tomato, and cape gooseberry, amounted to 74.3 million dollars and increased by 6% between January and November 2019, when compared to the same period of 2018.
The star product was the cape gooseberry, with external sales of 32.8 million dollars during the first 11 months of 2019 and an 8% increase in sales when compared to the same period of 2018.
It was followed by gulupa, with a stable interannual behavior and sales for 30.8 million dollars.
However, despite ranking 12th, curuba exports (also known as banana passionfruit), grew the most between 2018 and 2019 achieving an increase of 31% and sales for $38,785.
A similar thing happened with pomegranate, which ranked third with a total of 4.6 million dollars and registered a growth of 22%.
According to Procolombia, the main destination market for these fruits is the Netherlands, with purchases for 49.7 million dollars between January and November 2019 and an increase of 14%. It is followed by the United Kingdom, with 4.2 million and an increase of 33%.
The other countries that bought exotic fruits from Colombia last year were Belgium, Canada, France, the United States, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Hong Kong, Arab Emirates, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, Portugal, Aruba, and Curacao.
