Costa Rica’s banana industry is expecting a 12 per cent fall in overall volume this year in the wake of cold weather last December and an ongoing lack of rainfall in the important Caribbean production region.
According to Jorge Sauma, managing director of Costa Rican banana corporation Corbana, this season is likely to see export volumes drop from over 113m boxes of fruit, which itself represented a 5.1 per cent increase on the previous season, to an estimated 100m boxes.
While the cold weather affected the appearance of the fruit, the country, and particularly the Caribbean region of Limón, has also experienced a shortage of rainfall over the last two years.
“Last year was good, but this year looks like it’s going to be very hard,” says Mr Sauma. “We’re hoping to recover, but we don’t expect it to happen.”
