Four Fruit Companies Closed in Colombia Due to the Low Dollar Price

The president of the National Association of Foreign Trade of Colombia (ANALDEX), Javier Diaz Molina, revealed that four companies affiliated with that trade association were forced to close their operations this year due to a dollar that continues to hover around 3,000 pesos and threatens to fall below that value.

Although the trade association leader did not give the names of the companies affected by the collapse in the price of the currency, he confirmed that all of them are in the fruit sector, particularly avocado and cape gooseberry, and are located in the departments of Cundinamarca and Valle del Cauca.

“This is very serious and the consequences can be increasingly greater. We should be at a rate close to 3,800-4,000 pesos,” said Diaz Molina, quoted by Semana magazine, and warned that, with values below that range, exporters are in “difficulties.”

The situation is critical, the trade association leader continued, if it is taken into account that wages increased, the working day was reduced, and nighttime and Sunday surcharges increased. “At the same time, many business owners are reducing the number of shifts,” he said, and stressed that the extraordinary increase in labor costs has made the cost of the revaluation more expensive.

According to Diaz Molina, the fact that so far in 2026 the price of the dollar has fallen by 631 pesos is causing “an exchange-rate earthquake,” which could lead to a loss of exports equivalent to 50 billion pesos (US$16 million), with all that this means for employment.

He added that a large part of the exports affected by the revaluation are labor-intensive, such as flowers, coffee or construction. “That is why we are interested in alerting the Government about the exchange-rate phenomenon we are facing: A revaluation that can bring consequences similar to or greater than those of the earthquake of last August 10,” he said in the same outlet.

Dollar decline could impact employment

On the other hand, the sharp fall in the dollar is determining companies’ decisions between hiring workers or investing in technology, according to the analysis by Vision Davivienda, cited by the economic newspaper Portafolio.

The reason is that the appreciation of the peso has reduced the cost of imported capital goods, while domestic labor costs have increased due to the sharp increase in the minimum wage under the government of Gustavo Petro and the labor reform promoted by that same administration.

The combination of these two factors, that outlet assures, “could accelerate automation and put pressure on unemployment in the medium term.”

Although the appreciation generates benefits such as lower inflationary pressures and greater purchasing power abroad, it is also beginning to produce imbalances that can modify business investment, production and hiring decisions, estimates the aforementioned Vision Davivienda.

The fall of the dollar can have effects on the labor market, especially when companies find it more attractive to acquire imported technology than to expand their workforce. Equipment and machines acquired abroad cost less in terms of local currency, making technological investment more competitive.

Automation can increase companies’ productivity and expand their productive capacity, but it can also reduce the need for certain jobs when a machine, piece of equipment or technological process makes it possible to perform activities that previously required more workers, concludes Vision Davivienda.