"The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Orlando Solorzano, blamed Nicaraguan businesses for the obstacles they face at a regional level in exporting their meat and sausages. The official said the exporters have failed to meet various requirements in the process for getting export licenses", reported Laprensa.com.ni.

Solorzano cites as an example that last November, the Guatemalan authorities inspected slaughterhouses in Nicaragua. They left an inspection certificate and a list of questions to be addressed by the head office. As of last week, one of the slaughterhouses had not responded. This meant that the response which the the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry needed to give to the health authorities in Guatemala on the general state of slaughterhouses was delayed, the minister explained.

Slaughterhouse managers had complained that Guatemala was blocking the entry of 40,000 pounds of beef for phytosanitary reasons, a decision that executives attributed to reasons related to local industry interests being protected.

For its part the company Delmor Inc. also complained of non-tariff barriers from Honduras over a quota of 20,000 pounds of sausage.

Source: laprensa.com.ni

More on this topic

Non-tariff Barriers on Nicaraguan Beef

May 2012

Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico continue to hinder the importation of beef from Nicaragua.

The President of Canicarne, Onel Perez, said that since January 2010, Nicaragua has not exported beef to Panama under the agreed quota within the Free Trade Agreement, reported Elnuevodiario.com.ni.

Non-tariff barriers for sausage imports

February 2012

As with the case of beef with other countries, Honduras has placed phytosanitary restrictions on 20,000 pounds of sausage from Nicaragua, which is being disputed by exporter Delmor S.A.

The general manager of Delmor S.A., Zacarias Mondragon confirmed that his company stopped exporting to the Honduran market because of the imposition of phytosanitary restrictions a year and a half ago by the authorities of that country.

Guatemala Blocks Meat Imports

February 2012

The entry of 40,000 pounds of Nicaraguan meat has been prevented for alleged phytosanitary reasons, an argument which has been rejected by exporters.

Executives from Nicaraguan slaughterhouses have complained that Guatemala has had phytosanitary restrictions in place for two years on beef imports, arguing that this has caused huge losses, both in terms of money and business connections.

Guatemala Lifts Restrictions for Nicaraguan Meat

March 2010

Both governments signed an agreement under which Guatemala will lift a series of restrictions for Nicaraguan meat.

This was announced by Nicaraguan commerce minister Orlando Solórzano.

“On January, Guatemala prohibited Nicaraguan beef from entering the country. Their justification was that Nicaraguan slaughterhouses did not comply with required food health regulations”.