Colombia’s banana sector is looking forward to recouping some of its lost volume in 2013, following two years of lower-than-normal productivity brought on by high rainfall.

According to one of the country’s leading banana grower-exporters, the weather pattern this year has been far more normal, which coupled with a programme of production improvements, points towards a recovery.

“The last two years were extremely rainy,” the supplier told Eurofruit. “The outlook for 2013 is to recover part of the lost productivity of 2011 and 2012, when Colombia, especially Urabá – the principal banana-growing and exporting region, experienced a reduction of between 8 per cent and 10 per cent annually.”

The weather has not been the only driver of the recovery, however. Within the Colombian banana industry a new programme of fertilisation and black sigatoka treatment has also lent a hand in improving productivity levels.

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