Costa Rica Bananas In Middle East For The
First Time
CORBANA, the National Association of Banana
Producers of Costa Rica, is in Dubai for the
first time to explore business opportunities
in the Middle East on behalf of Costa Rican
producers.
Representatives from CORBANA will take part
in the Eurofruit Congress Middle East, the
leading fresh produce event in the region,
taking place over the next three days.
Why the Middle East?
Costa Rican producers are looking to
diversify their markets and now are
targeting the Middle East because of its
huge potential. This region is already the
fifth largest banana importing market in the
world. Annual banana imports have almost
tripled over the last decade, growing by
around 16 per cent a year between 2001 and
2007, from 257,000 tonnes to 737,000 tonnes.
According to Jorge Sauma, CEO of CORBANA,
“there has been impressive growth in the
Middle East market to date, and banana
consumption per capita in this region still
remains well below the average in mature
markets such as Europe and the US. This
suggests significant potential for further
growth in the Middle East market over the
next decade.”
Why Costa Rica bananas?
While Costa Rica is the third largest
banana-exporting country in the world,
banana production uses less than 1% of the
country´s territory. Costa Rica has had the
world’s highest yield per hectare in banana
production for 19 years, reaching a new
record for global exports worth US$ 674.2 m
in 2008.
Costa Rica bananas are produced to the
highest standards by methods that respect
the environment and provide sustainable
social conditions for banana workers. 99 per
cent of all Costa Rican banana plantations
are GlobalGap certified, for good
agricultural production practices, ISO 14001
certified for respecting the environment and
SA 8000 certified for compliance with
social, work place and human rights
standards.
Via CORBANA’s support, Costa Rica is now
looking to remain one step ahead of the
industry by becoming the first carbon
neutral banana producer by 2014. CORBANA is
also contributing to an international
research partnership aimed at reducing the
use of pesticides in banana farming by 50%
in 10 years. “We can offer a value-added
product to the sophisticated Middle Eastern
consumer by maintaining the high level of
social, labour and environmental standards
throughout the production process across our
industry.” says Jorge Sauma.
Jorge Sauma will be delivering a
presentation on ‘The Middle Eastern appetite
for Costa Rica Bananas’ at Eurofruit
Congress Middle East, Shangri-La Hotel,
Wednesday 11 at 09:30 am.
CORBANA (the National Banana Corporation of
Costa Rica) promotes and develops Costa
Rica’s banana industry. Founded in 1971,
CORBANA is a public non-governmental entity.
Its main objectives are to foster the
sustainable development of the banana
industry, to advise the Government in the
area of internal policies likely to affect
the banana industry and to carry out
research in the agricultural sector. It also
supports the Government with regard to
international banana negotiations.
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