During 2020 in the Salvadoran market, bean imports increased by 122% and rice imports by 51%, a rise that is reported in the context of the health and economic crisis generated by the outbreak of covid-19.
Figures from the Central Reserve Bank specify that between 2019 and 2020, foreign purchases of beans increased from $33 million to $60 million, and those of rice increased from $30 million to $45 million.
Due to the high geographic concentration of global production, Central America has increased its imports, but at the same time has become more vulnerable to crop losses, rising international prices and possible disruptions in supply chains.
The importance of the market for this type of food is that rice, wheat, corn, beans and soybeans are basic foods on which the world's population largely depends, since it is estimated that almost half of the calories consumed by people come from these foods.
Although the volume of corn, beans, and rice harvested is projected to increase in El Salvador by 2020, producers' expectations are not encouraging, since prices have fallen to levels insufficient to cover costs due to the import of basic grains.
Forecasts by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) indicate that this year the country's corn harvest will grow by 11%, beans by 30% and rice by 20%.
In El Salvador, it is projected that in the current agricultural cycle, the corn and bean harvests will fall by 5% and 8%, respectively, compared to what was predicted at the time of planting.
The forecasts of the Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers (CAMPO) and the National Association of Rural Producers of El Salvador (ANPRES), specify that in the case of corn there are about 20,000 manzanas of crop damaged, which would imply a loss of investment of approximately $19 million.
In El Salvador, the supply and distribution of sugar, rice, beans and corn flour for the centers of the Salvadoran Institute for the Integral Development of Children and Adolescents for the year 2020 are tendered.
El Salvador Government Purchase LP-04/2020-ISNA:
"The products offered must be delivered in the main and secondary packaging designed by the manufacturer, which must not suffer alterations or amendments and must also guarantee the total delivery of goods in optimum conditions, such as to preserve their quality, hygiene and health, during transportation, handling and storage, without deterioration of their useful life, as well as specify in the vignette the date of preparation or packaging, expiration date and Sanitary Registration No., regardless of the quantity to be served.
Because of the scarcity of rain in the region known as the Dry Corridor, producers in the country estimate that in the first cycle of the year has lost about 30% of corn crops and 35% of beans.
Directors of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua (Upanic) explained that for the so-called "first production", Estelí lost 50% of the bean crop, and in Nueva Segovia fell between 40% and 50%.
For the 2017-2018 agricultural cycle, the cultivated area in Guatemala was 1.07 million hectares, 48% more than the 725 thousand reported in the 2014-2015 cycle.
Data from the National Agricultural Survey 2017-2018, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics, show that 10.1% of the area dedicated to crops in the country is used for corn, 1.3% for beans and less than 1% for rice.
During last year, the country reported the production of 180,086 tons of rice, 20,652 tons of corn and 9,005 tons of beans.
According to the National Agricultural Survey 2017, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Census, it is estimated that last year the area planted with beans was 16,503 ha, 14,624 ha harvested area for a production of 9,005 mt.
The government is preparing a decree of a shortage in order to authorize the duty free import of 25,000 tons of beans, for the period between June 2018 and May of next year.
As happens every year, the National Production Commission (CNP) must authorize the duty free import of the grain, to cover the annual demand of 48,000 metric tons that can not be met with local production.
The Morales administration has asked Congress to approve an additional $40 million to buy food to supply the inhabitants of the drought-affected areas.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) put before the deputies a request to approve an additional item of Q300 million ($40 million) to buy food for the approximately 300,000 families that have lost their crops in the Dry Corridor that includes the departments of Santa Rosa, Jutiapa, Jalapa, El Progreso, Zacapa, Chiquimula and part of Izabal and Baja Verapaz.
The sector's union has estimated that for the 2017-2018 harvest 2.4 million hundredweight of beans will could have been produced, but due to climate effects, only 1.9 million hundredweight will be collected.
According to the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers (Field), with the 500 thousand hundredweight of beans that will not be collected in the period 2017-2018, $25 million will be lost, as each hundredweight is valued at $50.
Between 2014 and 2017 in the Dominican Republic, the areas dedicated to the cultivation of agricultural products of high local consumption such as red beans and cassava, went down by 43% and 17%, respectively.
According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, as of November 2017 registrations for red bean plantings numbered 188 thousand tareas (one tarea is approximately 600 square meters), a figure that is 43% lower than the 332 thousand tareas reported at the end of 2014.As a result, the volume produced fell from 476 thousand hundredweight in 2014 to 412 thousand reported in the period from January to November 2017.
Authorization has been given for 2018 to importy duty free a maximum of 5 thousand MT of black beans, 150 thousand MT of yellow corn, 50 thousand MT of white corn and 26 thousand MT of paddy rice.
The approved quotas were: Black beans, a maximum of 5 thousand metric tons -MT-, equivalent to 110 thousand hundredweight; yellow corn, 150 thousand -MT-, equivalent to 3.3 million hundredweight; white corn, 50 thousand -MT-, 110 thousand hundredweight and unhusked rice, 26 thousand MT, 572 thousand hundredweight.
In the last 16 years the amount of land cultivated with white corn has grown at an average annual rate of barely 1%, while in the case of beans, growth has been at an average annual rate of 6%.
From the executive summary of the report "Current situation of basic grains in Honduras", prepared by the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise:
The Ministry of Education in Panama is putting out to tender the supply, transport and unloading of rice, beans and lentils during 2018.
Panama Government Purchase 2017-0-07-0-99-LA-032671:
"Description and general characteristics of the products:
Special long-grain rice (1,299 tons): Processed product that must have at least 95% whole grains and 5% maximum broken grains with average size between 6 and 7 mm in length.