Significant losses expected in banana sector in Honduras.

Banana is one of the most important products for Honduras due to its generation of workplaces and foreign exchange.

Mauricio Guevara, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, foresees a drop in banana exports and that the recovery of the crop in the plantations after storms Iota and Eta will take approximately one year, because it takes 9 to 12 month for banana cultivation.

Significant economic losses are projected considering that most of the banana produced in the regions of Yoro, Cortés and Colón is grown for export.

The president of the Association of Independent Banana Producers of the Sula Valley, Héctor Castro, projects an approximate of 160 million dollars of income losses for the sector, if the banana won't be produced in a timely manner.

Exports of agricultural products from January to November 2020 totaled 793.6 million dollars, which is 70.6 million (9.8 percent) more compared to what was registered in the same period of 2019. This is mainly explained by the behavior of banana exports, observing an increase of 71.5 million dollars.

Such dynamism was caused by the 23.6% improvement in the average international price of the fruit, despite the 5.1% decrease in the exported volume. Most of this product was exported to the United States (98.8% of total shipments).

source: latribuna