Between January and September 2016 the volume of regional fertilizer imports from the Asian country grew by 17% compared to the same period in 2015.
Figures from the information system on the the Fertilizer Market in Central America, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmerica Data : [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with the graph"]
Work is being done on a regulation governing the treatment and use of empty pesticide containers in the agribusiness sector.
One of the possibilities is for containers to be transformed after their initial use into a different industrial material.Authorities at the Ministries of Health and Agricultural Development are working on a rule that will determine how the containers can be reused.
The new regulations will come into force in July 2017 and state that pesticide registrations can be renewed for equal consecutive periods of ten years and must be processed in the six months prior to their expiration.
Agricultural entrepreneurs expect the newregulationpublished yesterday in the official newspaper La Gaceta to start solving bureaucratic problems that have affected the sector for years, as before now they had to wait several months to complete the process for registering products.
It has been estimated that in 2017 the sector producing and selling agricultural chemicals will achieve a performance similar to that of 2016, having ended the year with growth of 15% in sales.
The dynamism of agricultural activity in the country is the main reason behind the good performance of the agrochemical sector.Although official figures for the close of 2016 are not yet known, entrepreneurs estimate that growth was achieved in sales of around 15%.
Pesticide registrations may be renewed for equal and consecutive periods of ten years to be processed in the six months before they expire.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Costa Rica:
The Executive today signed a new decree governing the registration, use and control of agricultural raw materials such as synthetic pesticides, adjuvants and other related substances.
With the enlargement, the storage capacity in the plant making nutrition products for crops which Disagro operates in Corinto will increase from 35,000 to 55,000 metric tons.
$4 million was invested in the expansion of the plant making nutrition products for crops.
"...'This is an investment that generates confidence in Nicaraguan agriculture, becauseagricultural production areas in the Pacific and the Caribbean are growing in size and productivity', said Baltodano, who points out that producers will need to carry out soil analysis in order to make their crops efficient."
In 2015 the countries of the region imported $800 million worth of fertilizers, led by Guatemala, which bought 658 thousand tons, equivalent to $240 million.
Figureson the fertilizers market in CentralAmerica, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData.com show that imports from all countries in 2015 amounted to 2 million tons, at a value of $803 million.
Food sovereignty initiatives including price controls, water management and prohibition of agrochemicals are typical examples of a political will being disconnected from the productive reality.
The agricultural sector says that the three bills which are being discussed in the Legislature will have negative effects on the activity, distorting prices and causing costs to rise.One is the draft law on prohibition of agrochemicals, another that on food sovereignty and security and the third, the General Water Law.
Within the legislation on waste which has now been amended by the UN, thirteen new pesticides have been included, among them herbicides such as acetochlor and flumioxazine.
The UN "Codex Alimentarius" Commission reviewed and approved the new maximum allowable limits for residues of 31 pesticides in various foods.
The government will not authorize imports of this agrochemical, in compliance with the Stockholm Treaty which prevents entry into Europe of goods that have used this product in the cultivation process.
Environmentalists in Costa Rica are opposed to the automatic authorization of the registration of active ingredients which have already been approved by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
With this measure, environmental groups are facing off against farmers, who for years have pushed for the registration process to be speeded up so that they can "...
In order to combat the effect of the borer on plantations producers have requested the government to lift the ban on the import of this chemical product.
Arguing that the impact of the coffee berry borer in coffee plantations has "... increased from levels of less than 2% to 10%", the private sector has suggested to the National Commission for Transformation and Development of Coffee Growing the possibility that regulations prohibiting the import of endosulfan be revised so that imports can be made which are small and exclusively for use in coffee producers.
Members of the ruling party in El Salvador have once again taken up the issue of the proposed banning, without any technical foundation, of the use of 53 agrochemicals in the country.
Although in 2013 the Executive made observations on the decree purporting to completely prohibit the use of the 53 products , arguing that some were already prohibited by international standards and asking for scientific studies for the remaining, once again there has been an attempt to pass the measure without taking into account its effects on agriculture.
From December 2016 the Asian country will prevent the entry of agricultural products containing any residues of agrochemicals.
From a statement issued by the State Phytosanitary Service in Costa Rica:
SFE authorities have communicated to exporters of unprocessed plant products destined for Korea, that this nation has established a new legislation on Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) of pesticides.
In Nicaragua for every cultivated hectare, 39 kilos of fertilizer are used, in Panama the figure is 50 kilos, in Honduras, 58, in Guatemala, 97, in El Salvador, 135, and in Costa Rica, 264 kilos.
The study "State of the Global Food and Agriculture", by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), details not only the use of fertilizer per hectare in Central America, but also the proportion of the value added in agriculture in each country.