OREANDA-NEWS  A shift from traditional shipping to refrigerated containers has a positive impact on Colombian containerised trade growth, with 11 new markets opening for its banana, avocado and pineapple exports.

The current global political climate makes the success of the Pacific Alliance more necessary than ever. It’s certainly positive news to see that containerised foreign trade growing 4.65% in Colombia in 2016 with exports increasing 9% year-on-year and imports rising by 2.45% as indicated in the Colombian Q4 Maersk Trade Report.

The main trend is the strong growth in Colombian fruit exports to Europe, particularly bananas, in volume and number of destinations.

During the last quarter of the year, exports to European markets grew by 90%, boosted by a surge in Colombian banana shipments following the opening of a direct export route between the port of Turbo in Urab? region (located on Colombia’s Atlantic coastline) and Europe.

Beginning operations in early 2016, this route sparked a trend towards cargo conversion, away from large-scale banana boats and towards cutting edge refrigerated containers offering better transport conditions and the chance to diversify and direct shipments to specific destinations.

“The shift in the method of shipping bananas has allowed Colombia to diversify its export markets for fruits.”

“The shift in the method of shipping bananas has allowed Colombia to diversify its export markets for fruits. Interestingly, containers loaded with Colombian bananas arrived to 31 countries - 12 more destinations than in 2015. Among them, several new markets with significant purchases are noteworthy, such as Slovenia, Portugal, France, Malta and Ukraine. We also saw strong growth in the number of shipments to markets such as the United Kingdom, Italy,

Netherlands and Greece,” explains Juan Camilo V?squez, Colombia Sales Manager for Maersk Line.