In El Salvador coffee exports have to wait for the incoming government to finalize the appointment of the new executive director of the Salvadoran Coffee Council.
Adding to existing problems in the coffee export sector, which has seen foreign sales decrease by 56% in the fourth month of the year compared to the same period in 2013, the Salvadoran Coffee Council (CSC) is warning of the possibility that exports of the grain will be further hindered by the process of appointing new management, a job of the incoming government.
The conflict over charging for non intrusive inspections at borders has negatively affected exporters.
In January there were exports for $402.8 million, 16% less than the amount reported in the same month in 2013, when $477.9 million worth of goods was sold abroad, according to the Central Reserve Bank (Banco Central de Reserva).
The conflict over the $18 charge for inspection using scanners at customs offices has negatively affected exporters.
Of the major producers in the region, Nicaragua was the most affected, having exported 64% less in the first four months of the harvest.
Except for Brazil coffee exports from nine countries in Latin America fell by 8% during the first four months of the harvest which began in October compared with the same period of the previous cycle. Nicaragua was the most affected with a fall of 64 % in sales of the grain.
Exports totaled $7.676 billion in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 3.3% compared to exports in the same period last year.
From the executive summary of the report entitled "Central American Foreign Trade Bulletin January-March 2013" by SIECA:
Exports from the region reached an FOB value of U.S. $7.6757 billion during January to March 2013, observing a negative annual growth of 3.3% over exports recorded in the same period last year (U.S. $ 7.9366 billion).
From January to September this year the Salvadoran textile and clothing sector exported $792.4 million, 6.7% less than in the same period in 2011.
Elsalvador.com reports that "The production of textiles and clothing lost momentum in growth between January and September compared to the same period last year due to a slowdown in the U.S. economy and the fiscal crisis in Europe .
As of August exports totaled 1,322,330 qq., 39.6% less than in the same period last year when they reached 2,190,691 qq., according to information from the Salvadoran Coffee Council.
As for income, the drop was was 31.6%, falling to $302.9 million for the current period compared to $441.6 in the previous cycle.
The report adds: "The fall in exports was due to the sharp decline in the 2011/2012 harvest, attributed to the bienniality and rains from Tropical Depression E-12 in October 2011."
From January to July 2012, exports totaled $3.19 billion, registering a negative growth rate of -1.5% per year, compared to the same period in 2011.
From a press release by the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador:
From January to July 2012, exports from El Salvador totaled $3.1975 billion, registering a negative growth rate of -1.5% per year, compared to the same period in 2011, according to the Management of Studies and Economic Statistics at the Central Bank of Reserve El Salvador.
The financial crisis affecting Europe has resulted in low prices for melons and watermelons.
So says Alexis Bravo, president of the Nontraditional Agribusiness Group in Panama (Grantap), at the end of the XX International Congress of Producers and Exporters of Melons and Watermelons, held in Panama.
"... The European market prospects remain good, but ...
The sum of exports from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru was lower by 2.28% compared to the same period in the previous harvest.
From the National Coffee Association (Anacafe):
The Guatemalan Anacafé outlined in a statement that their exports of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru totaled 20,709,455 bags of 60 kilos from October 2011 to last June .
The amount of mangoes sold in Germany in the first three months of 2012 compared with the same period in the previous two years, fell by more than half.
A statement from PROCOMER reads:
Mango sales have collapsed in Germany. The amount of mangoes sold in Germany in the first three months of 2012 compared to the same period in the previous two years fell by more than half, according to the German Association Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI).
Between 2002 and 2011 the annual shrimp production dropped by almost fifty percent.
The annual average in the last decade was around 1,322.5 tons, 781.5 less than the production between 2000 and 2001, according to data from the National Center for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture (CENDEPESCA).
"The figure becomes more dramatic when compared with the last three years of the 90's, when the country produced more than 4,000 tons of lobster", reported Elsalvador.com.
While the demand from the global market grows, pests, rainfall and other factors are depleting crops in a number of major sugar producing countries.
In Guatemala the 2010-2011 sugar harvest that ended on April 30 reported a total of 29.2 million quintales being exported, 7.6 million less than in the previous period which was 36.8 million.
For its part, the Sugar Association of Guatemala (ASAZGUA) reported a decrease of 12.5% in production.
Between January and August 2010, the country's balance of payments deficit reached $2.16 billion, 21% more than in the same period of 2009.
El Salvador's exports totaled $2.99 billion while the value of its imports was $5.61 billion for the period, according to statistics from the country's central bank (BCR).
A BCR communication states that the main reason for the gap is the fall in coffee sales (-24.5%), despite an increase in the international price paid for the grain.
In the first 11 months of the current coffee harvesting season, 1.28 million hunderedweight was exported, 25% less than in the same period of the previous season.
According to data from El Salvador's Coffee Council, coffee exports so far in 2010 are 1.278 million compared to 1.705 million hundredweight in the same period of the 2009 harvest.
"According to the council's statistics, as of 20 September sales of 1.33 hundredweight has been agreed with revenue estimated at around $200 million and an average price of $149," reports Elsalvador.com.
The combined exports of the 2009-10 harvests for the nine countries in Latin America have fallen 10.15%.
Total exports from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru were 21,768,415 sacks weighing 60kg each according to Guatemala's National Coffee Association (Anacafé).
"Anacafé indicates that this statistic represents a worldwide reduction of 10.15% relative to exports during the previous harvest which totalled 24,226,650 sacks," reports Sigloxxi.com.