Analysis of Colombian exports of exotic fruits to the European Union

The exclusive geographical location of Colombia has generated advantages and opportunities for the country, like a wide diversification of agricultural products, a permanent production during the year and access to two different oceans. This opportunities have been exploited gradually over the last years mainly due to the openness of the Colombian markets and the world awareness of Colombian products. However, these opportunities have not been fully exploited and a lot of potential is remaining. An example of this, is the potential European market created for unique products like the Colombian exotic fruits, which is roughly reached but not completely fulfilled.The objective of this project is to describe the actual situation of Colombia’s exports of exotic fruits to the European Union, comparing and analyzing the actual trade agreement and the coming into force free trade agreement with the European Union. This research was carried out based on the imports/exports information from official government databases, analyzing the imports by the European Union of exotic fruits from the world. The research resulted that Colombia not only is the number one exporter compared to the regional competitors, but also that some of these exotic fruits are produced exclusively in Colombia, being this a huge opportunity for the country. However, the social problems, unskilled labor, poor infrastructure, low agricultural technology and small production capacity are the main problems of Colombia for fulfilling the European Union demands and quality standards. Colombia has a great potential of growth under the Free Trade Agreement frame, however much is to be improved if it wants to satisfy the market demands in terms of quantity and quality. Investments need to be done to improve the infrastructure, the logistic channels, the coordination for the production demand and to modernize the agricultural technologies.