The 2009 Import and Export Market for Fresh or Dried Bananas and Plantains in Europe

On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners approaching the market in Europe face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying fresh or dried bananas and plantains to Europe? What is the dollar value of these imports? How much do the imports of fresh or dried bananas and plantains vary from one country to another in Europe? Do exporters serving the market in Europe have similar market shares across the importing countries? On the supply side, Europe also sells to the international market of fresh or dried bananas and plantains. Which countries in Europe supply the most exports of fresh or dried bananas and plantains? Which countries are buying their exports? 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 Europe. 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 Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics that appear several years after the fact.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 Europe via exports or supplying from Europe via imports. We do 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 Europe 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 Europe in particular, is based on 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 dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the shares that countries in Europe are likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize markets within Europe. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information for strategic planning purposes.