Browse Data and Analysis

In market year (MY) 2025/2026, FAS Bogota (Post) forecasts Colombia’s sugar production to recover to 2.3 million metric tons (MMT) due to improved weather conditions from the weakening of the La Niña phenomenon and expected normal weather patterns, positively impacting sugarcane yields and sucrose content.

On March 5, 2025, Colombia's National Institute for the Surveillance of Food and Medicines (INVIMA) confirmed that starch is approved by the Colombian government as an additive for use as a thickener and stabilizer agent in fresh cheese.

The United States remains the top international supplier to Colombia's food ingredients sector.

This report provides information to U.S. exporters of agricultural and related products on how to do business with the Food Processing industry in Panama. It is primarily a service – based economy, but food processing is one of its top industries.

Anyone exporting food or feed products to Colombia should note that since March 2025, Colombian quarantine officials have stopped allowing updates to many details on import permits and are no longer allowing any changes after the products have left port.

Colombia’s economic recovery together with growing domestic livestock and poultry production are driving Colombia’s corn demand. With the rapid development of poultry and egg production in particular, corn consumption is projected to increase in market year (MY) 2025/2026 to support strengthening demand from the animal feed sector.

In 2024, U.S. agricultural exports to Colombia reached a record high of $4.5 billion, a 21 percent increase from 2023. This growth, supported by the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, represented the highest rate among the top 25 U.S. agricultural export markets globally.

On January 14, 2025, the Panamanian Food Agency (APA) and the Ministry of Health of Panama confirmed that the dairy plants registration process has been significantly expedited, resolving a trade barrier created on July 17, 2023.

On January 18, 2025, Colombia's National Institute for the Surveillance of Food and Medicines (INVIMA) confirmed that cellulose is approved by the Colombian government as a cheese additive for use as an anti-caking agent in grated and/or granulated fresh cheese for surface treatment.

Although Panama highlighted the use of biotechnology in its Agricultural State Policy Law 352 of 2023, Panama has not yet established the implementing regulations of Law 48 of 2002, which created the National Commission of Biosafety for Genetically Modified Organisms.

SaborUSA Colombia, FAS Bogota's flagship marketing campaign, partnered with the U.S. Popcorn Board (PB) to promote American popcorn through a social media contest.

This report outlines how U.S. food and agriculture exporters engage with the hotel, restaurant, and institutional (HRI) sector in Panama. This sector plays a vital role in Panama's economy and is driven by international tourism.