The country received $438 million in foreign sales for the 2010-2011 coffee harvest.
The main destinations for Nicaraguan coffee were the United States, Germany and Venezuela, according to data from the Center for Exports (CETREX).
An article in Laprensa.com.ni reports, "The strong recovery in exports was driven by the rise in coffee prices, averaging $225.5 per quintal in the period 2010-2011 compared with $149.8 in the 2009-2010 cycle. "
The country is claiming to be free of the disease known as ‘Mad Cow Syndrome’.
Government representatives have asked the Animal Health Agency to grant the country a rating of "negligible risk" for the disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), known as ‘Mad Cow Disease’.
In Central America the only country with this classification is Panama. In the rest of the region, countries like the United States and Mexico hold the category of ‘controlled risk’.
In the first nine months of the year, exports recorded an increase in value of 23.66% compared to the same period in 2010.
According to the Center for Exports (CETREX) for the same period the volume of exports reported a decrease of 5.18%.
"Although there has been reduction in the volume various exported products, international prices of the country's leading exports, have remained high relative to 2010", reported Laprensa.com.ni
The government has given authorization for bean exports, which had been suspended since September 2010, for the next three months.
The information was confirmed by Jose Adan Aguirre, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise, COSEP, after a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce (Mific), Orlando Solórzano.
In the first 11 months of the current crop of 2010-11, the value of coffee exports has risen by 39.9%.
Between October 2010 and August 2011 sales abroad of the aromatic totaled $430.5 million compared to $308.9 million in the same period in the previous harvest, according to the Center for Exports (CETREX).
An article in Prensalibre.com notes, "The CETREX reported, however, an 8.1 percent decrease in the volume of exports during the period.
In the first eight months of the year, sales to the Asian market increased by 44% compared to the same period in 2010.
The latest report from the Center for Exports (CETREX) reveals that the biggest buyers are Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and India and the most popular products are seafood, meat, coffee and sugar.
The Asian market is the fifth largest recipient of exports from Nicaragua.
Exports from January to July amounted to $1,443 million, an increase of 25.56% in value compared to the same period in 2010.
During the period, the items reporting the fastest growth were coffee beans (42%), raw gold (86%) and beef (37%).
"... Gold has fared very well, increasing by 86% in the foreign exchange generated and by 50% in volumes, meaning that the country is producing more gold metal, encouraged by rising international prices which have led a troy ounce to be worth more than $1,700, while in January it was less than $1.400.
The Costa Rican rice sector is demanding that the government increases the controls for rice entering from Nicaragua.
Doubts about the true origin of rice coming into the country have led Costa Rican rice growers to request a review of rules of origin for imports, suspecting that the grain is entering in a triangular fashion.
Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, a country where rice production is insufficient to meet domestic demand, export of the grain is almost nonexistent, leading to suspicions that the rice is coming from other countries on the isthmus and then being transported to Costa Rica.
The interconnection will expedite the processing of business transactions between the two countries.
The 541 companies in El Salvador currently exporting goods to Nicaragua will be the first to benefit from the connection of the two offices, which will expedite the process of obtaining permits and other paperwork.
The main promoter for this initiative in El Salvador has been the Center of Import and Export Procedures (CIEX), which launched the project in conjunction with customs authorities.
Led by coffee, beef, gold, sugar cane, and peanuts, from January to June 2011, Nicaraguan exports grew by 29% during the first half of 2010.
According to information from the Center for Exports the main export was coffee, at $334.4 million, followed by beef, at $187.8 million,
In the opinion of economist Rene Vallecillo, good prices in the international markets is one of the factors most affecting the favorable performance of exports.
The Canadian market has become the third most important for Nicaraguan exports.
As of June 14, exports to Canada totaled $116.3 million, behind only the United States and Venezuela.
The export sector believes that this year, 2011, foreign sales to Canada will exceed those of Venezuela.
"Since last year there has been a surge in Nicaraguan exports to the Canadian market, when they closed at $157.4 million, which represented an increase of 273% compared to the previous year, according to figures from the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN )", noted an article in Laprensa.com.ni.
In the first seven months of the current 2010/11 crop, foreign coffee sales have increased by 59%.
High international prices and an increased harvest volume have enabled the country to increase the value of their sales to the rest of the world, which amounted to $273.6 million between October 2010 and April this year.
In this period, the international price of a quintal of coffee stood at $212.95, while in the same period during the previous harvest, 2009, the price was $140.29.
In the first 5 months of the year, exports amounted to $1,000 million.
The favorable international market helped boost growth in sales outside of Nicaragua, in the first five months of the year alone they went up by 33% compared to the same period in 2010.
The main reason behind the increase is not greater export volume, but the rise in international prices, which has allowed the country to sell more products at greater expense.
The country's principal markets are South Korea, Japan, the Republic of China Taiwan with which it has had free trade agreement (FTA) since 2008
In the first three months of 2011 exports totaled $46.7 million, 46% more than in the same period of 2010.
Supported by the FTA, Nicaragua has sold Asian markets a total of $12 million worth of products in the first quarter of 2011, according to a report by the country's Center for Export Prodedures (Cetrex).