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.

Sugar production in 2025/26 is projected to reach 6.6 million tons, which is 13.7 percent higher than the 2024/25 estimated production. This increase is based on expectations for improved sugar content and average cane yield.

Wheat production is projected to fall to 27.5 million tons in 2025/26 due to a decrease in cultivated area and extremely dry weather. This shortfall in domestic production is expected to lead to increased imports, forecast at 1.7 million tons.

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 highlights the food processing industry, its drivers, key players, and market landscape in the Caribbean Basin. The region relies heavily on imports, and the United States is the largest supplier of food ingredients.

Following the resumption of genetically engineered soybean imports after two years, soybean imports are forecast to rebound to 2 million tons in 2025/26. With a slight increase in domestic production expected, rapeseed imports are forecast to decline.

Driven by a minor increase in area and assuming average yields, cotton production is expected to increase somewhat in 2025/26. With expectations for continued strong export demand, domestic use is forecast to grow modestly in 2025/26.

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.

U.S. soybean exports to Pakistan have resumed after Pakistan removed a 2-year functional ban. On February 18, 2025, Pakistan received its first U.S. soybean shipment of 65,000 tons, and U.S. exporters will soon ship approximately 200,000 more tons.

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.