Overview
Animal protein, fruits, vegetables and dairy products are mainly consumed by the population in Colombia. Most consumed staple foods are corn, wheat, rice and beans, wich are mostly produced locally. The country is self-sufficient to produce its own food. However, despite being a food-producing country, household food basket cost is too high compared to that of other countries in the region.
Food supply market is large in the country from wholesale markets to local markets in cities and neighborhoods, offering a large variety of products for household food supply through segment retailers and supermarket chains offering domestic and imported products.
In the case of processed and unprocessed foods such as wheat flour, sugar, rice, corn and beans, respectively, private food manufacturers and traders can meet domestic requirements by either supplying domestic production or importing from neighboring countries, generally speaking.
In Colombia, food imports continue to increase. Most imported foods are corn, wheat and soybean cake accounting for 79.5% of the total volume of imports, which corresponds to about 3.6 million tons of food. Significant participation is also found for imported products such as palm oil, cane sugar, cooked vegetables, milk, soybean oil, barley and cotton. As for exports, most exported foods are edible fruits, especially bananas, avocados and gulupa (purple passion fruit), accounting for 34.6% of total food exports, followed by fats and oils for 20.4% and sugar and confectionery for 17%.
Three major economic sectors can be found in the country, which are grouped into specialized and independent activities. The first economic sector refers to the agricultural sector supplying the demand for products such as potatoes, cassava roots, yams, tubers, tropical fruits and most vegetables. According to agricultural census data, Colombia has 40 million hectares of agricultural frontier, of which only 19% is currently used so more than 32 million hectares are still available to be converted into agricultural production lines to dynamize the countryside. However, many factors can affect productivity, such as the availability and access to certified seeds, few and costly sources of credit, poor technical support, production in marginal land for cultivation, insufficient storage infrastructure and limited market development.
The second sector is industry, which includes activities such as construction, one of the fastest-growing activities that has led the industry sector to be dynamic and superior compared to other important sectors in the country, such as mining and services.
The third sector is the service sector standing out for their contribution to the economy, in which the hospitality and tourism industry, transportation services, communications services, financial services, utility services and health promoting entities are the most representative sectors.
