The 2013 Import and Export Market for Fresh or Dried Bananas and Plantains in Panama

On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on fresh or dried bananas and plantains in Panama face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying fresh or dried bananas and plantains to Panama? How important is Panama compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of fresh or dried bananas and plantains vary from one country of origin to another in Panama? On the supply side, Panama also exports fresh or dried bananas and plantains. Which countries receive the most exports from Panama? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for fresh or dried bananas and plantains in Panama. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for fresh or dried bananas and plantains for those countries serving Panama via exports, or supplying from Panama via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models. In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Panama fits into the world market for imported and exported fresh or dried bananas and plantains. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Panama in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side