International Banana Trade: Volumes, Countries, and Trends

In this research paper, the authors analyzed changes in the 2000–2021 physical volumes and trends of international trade in bananas, identified the world’s largest exporters and importers of this tropical fruit, and assessed changes in their positions in these flows during the studied period. Bananas rank first among other fruit and berry products in terms of gross yields and parameters of their international trade, which indicates the high importance of this tropical fruit in the food supply of producing and exporting countries and banana-importing countries. The research shows that the global export parameters of bananas increased by 1.71 times during the considered period. They equaled 14.336 million tons in 2000 and reached 24.584 million tons by 2021. The volume of global banana imports was 23.336 million tons in 2021, which is 1.62 times higher compared to 2000 (14.433 million tons). In 2021, the following five countries (in descending order of importance) were represented among the main exporters of the considered tropical fruit: Ecuador (27.71%), Guatemala (10.14%), Philippines (9.89%), Costa Rica (9.41%), and Colombia (8.55%). In the second five were the Netherlands (3.69%), Belgium (3.40%), the USA (2.38%), Panama (2.37%), and Mexico (1.99%). Together, these ten countries accounted for 79.54% of global exports of bananas. In this ranking, there are many countries from Latin America. In terms of banana imports, the top five leading countries in 2021 were the USA (19.86%), China (7.99%), Russia (6.26%), the Netherlands (6.15%), and Germany (6.06%). In the second five were Japan (4.75%), Belgium (4.62%), the UK (3.92%), Italy (3.33%), and France (3.20%). These ten countries accounted for 66.13% of global imports of bananas. Some of these countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, and Germany, are also major exporters of bananas without producing them.