The drop in international prices and the climate difficulties were the main reasons for the 5% reduction in the value exported from Costa Rica last year compared to 2018.
Data from the Foreign Trade Promotion Agency (Procomer) show that between 2018 and 2019, exports of the fruit decreased from $983 million to $930 million, which is equivalent to a negative variation of 5%.
At the beginning of 2019 there were 44,500 hectares dedicated to fruit cultivation in Costa Rica, however, because of high production costs and a drop in international prices, by 2021 the cultivated area could fall to 38,000 hectares.
Directors of the National Chamber of Pineapple Producers and Exporters (Canapep) explained that the fall in the price of pineapple internationally is because of increased competition, since countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, have managed to gain market share in the U.S. and Europe.
Climatic and market conditions would be the reasons behind the drop in foreign sales expected for this year by exporters of bananas and pineapples in Costa Rica.
The drought in the Caribbean region, together with the attack of a bacterium on the plantations, will cause a year-on-year drop of at least 15% in banana production in 2019, according to business leaders.
After reaching a $200 million record in exports in 2016, in 2018 the value of pineapple juice sold by Costa Rican companies abroad fell to $104 million.
According to the annual report "Foreign trade in the agricultural sector", published by the Executive Secretariat of Agricultural Sector Planning (Sepsa), in the last two years’ pineapple juice exports have reported a downward trend, from $200 million to $156 million between 2016 and 2017, and from $156 million to $104 million between 2017 and 2018.
An activity that generates nearly $1 billion a year in Costa Rica in exports is being seriously threatened by the infiltration of drug traffickers, who are taking advantage of loopholes left open by the government because it does not have an adequate system for checking containers and registering exporters.
The most recent seizure of 45 kilos of drugs that arrived in the United States in the corrugated bottom of 20 cardboard boxes of pineapples from San Carlos has once again set alarm bells ringing in the export sector, which has ceaselessly demanded that authorities to go back to the "in situ" review system of cargo, which used to be carried out before and stopped during the Solís administration.
There only remains a technical visit to be made by Chinese authorities in order to complete the evaluation process and start exporting pineapples to China.
Estimates by the SFE indicate that there are 20 companies interested in exporting pineapples to China.
Abel Chaves, president of the National Chamber of Producers and Exporters of Pineapple (Canapep), told Elfinancierocr.com that"...'Before thinking about production volumes we have to think about how much demand will grow, the pricing scheme that the market will have and the logistics to get the product there.But the answer to whether we can make the cut is yes.'"
In the first half of the year interceptions of goods in the US suspected of being contaminated with insects rose by 32% compared to the same period in 2015.
Data provided by the health authorities of the United States to Costa Rica indicates that most of the detained shipments were stopped on suspicion of the presence of the cochineal bug.
Pineapple exporters claim to have lost $2.3 million since the authorities started making additional inspections of containers at ports of departure.
Arguing that in April an increased presence of insects was detected in containers of pineapples exported to the United States, the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) has tightened control measures, which are no longer limited to inspections on farms and packing plants, but also include an extra inspection at ports of departure.
Chinese health authorities are inspecting plants and pineapple farms in the country as part of the process of market opening for the Costa Rican fruit.
In addition to inspections on farms and plants, a technical mission to China has verified health checks undertaken by the laboratories of the State Phytosanitary Service. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, "...Costa Rica's successful entry could result in a need to expand the amount of land planted with this fruit, which is currently 45,000 hectares. "
A 42% increase in the production of pineapples in the last four years is due to higher yields, not by an increase in planted areas.
The strong increase in the production of the product in the period 2009-2013 can be attributed to an improvement in yields on already cultivated land and not to an increase in the amount of areas planted, explain industry representatives. In the same period exports increased by 44%.
Costa Rica's success as a producer of the MD2 pineapple variety, is attempting to be copied by countries like Panama, Colombia and Ghana.
Costa Rica is the world's leading supplier of pineapple, a position it achieved in particular because of the quality and sweetness of the MD2 variety, characteristic due not only to technological equipment employed and processes that have been internationally certified, but also because of the special conditions of the soil and climate.
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