Honduras has been pushed to the margins of the international banana market with zero export growth in recent years, website Latribuna.hn reported.

While Honduras continues to look for market opportunities in Asia and South America, one executive has attributed the poor results to a lack of free trade deals with Central America and Europe, the story reported.

Tela Railroad Company vice president Fernando Sánchez, told the website that while countries like Costa Rica and Panama ship 1.1 million metric tons (MT) and 300 million MT respectively each year, Honduras only exports about 50,000MT.

"It's really not worth it for us," Sánchez was quoted as saying.

The executive criticized the government for not taking an active role in negotiating trade deals with potential markets, as Costa Rica and Panama have done.

He said the lack of progress could be seen in the fact that Honduras has only exported around 11.5 million cartons of the fruit in recent years, the story reported.

Last year, transnational Standard Fruit announced the closure of 13 banana farms in Honduras' Coyoles Central zone.

Photo: La Tribuna

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