The fruit and
vegetables in Colombia is very important socio-economic in the country. An estimated 400,000 Colombian farmers involved in horticulture and have farms with an
average area of 1 hectare.
In 2009, fruit production was performed at about 226.083
hectares (excluding bananas) and vegetables production in hectares 105.019.
Colombian
agricultural industry generates about
70% of direct employment (and indirect) of the country. Of this, the coffee industry leader
with 33% followed by sugarcane (12%), fruits (7%), flowers (5%), cassava (5%) and maize (5%) .
In total about 237.000 people working in the fruit
and vegetables in 2009 (including
processing, marketing and retailing). Less than 50% (98.444) are involved in supply chains
oriented to the export of fruits and vegetables.
The
total production of fruits and vegetables has today reached about 5
million tons. In the
years since 2005-2009 the
production of vegetables grew
to 1,795,847 tons
(+5%) and fruit production
3,143,602 tons (+2%).
The most important vegetables
are tomato, carrot and onion (onion
and Junca) representing over 70% of total production. However, vegetables like celery, radish, fodder
beet, cucumber, green lettuce, broccoli, fresh coriander
and others work with higher growth rates (>
15%). Vegetable production is
mainly in three regions (departments)
Boyacá (24%), Gauteng (21%) and Gauteng (10%).
Almost all major departments show a strong
growth in production, except Santander and
Boyaca. Tolima maintains its
production while reducing the
area planted.
The most important are
citrus fruits (21%),
pineapple (13%), banana (9%),
mango, papaya (6%) and avocado (5%), which together represent about 66% of the total fruit production
in the country. However, fruits such as tamarind,
fig, dragon fruit, peach, papaya, gooseberry,
passion fruit, passion fruit, etc.. in
the past have shown higher growth.
|
Position
|
Fruit
|
Production Since 2009 (tons)
|
|
1
|
CÍTRICOS
|
469,621
|
|
2
|
PINE
|
329,208
|
|
3
|
BANANA
|
296,307
|
|
4
|
PAPAYA
|
241,864
|
|
5
|
MANGO
|
239,127
|
|
6
|
ORANGE
|
193,506
|
|
7
|
AVOCADO
|
183,854
|