Because of the decline in the international price of sugar in recent years, agricultural businessmen in Guatemala have decided to migrate to more profitable crops, such as bananas and African palm.
Last year, Guatemalan banana exports totaled $815 million, 4% more than the $782 million reported in 2017, a rise that is partly caused by the increase in the cultivated area in the country.
Because of the foreign sales of companies in Guatemala and Honduras, during the first six months of 2018 regional exports totaled $100 million, 19% more than in the same period in 2017.
Figures from the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralamericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
From November 5th to 9th, Guatemalan businessmen from the agricultural and manufacturing sectors will visit Frankfurt to discuss business opportunities with local buyers.
The representatives of the Guatemalan Association of Exporters (Agexport) informed that the trade mission they organize, will allow Guatemalan businessmen to contact potential buyers from Germany, whom they will have business appointments previously defined.
Due to growth in demand for the fruit at an international and local level, Guatemalan producers see potential for expanding the crop in the coming years.
Since 2002 demand for the fruit in the US has doubled and in Europe it has grown 20% in the last three years, this has generated positive expectations for local producers who foresee business opportunities.
In Costa Rica, the productive activity of agricultural goods destined for domestic consumption has been stayed low in recent years, despite the fact that most benefit from the protection afforded by the tariffs imposed on imports of some similar goods.
The Central Bank of Costa Rica calculates the Monthly Index of Agricultural Activity (Imagro), which includes an item called "agricultural products", which monitors the production of basic grains, cereals, pulses and other oil seeds, vegetables, roots and tubers, cane, coffee and fruit trees, which are usually intended for domestic consumption.
Between 2016 and 2017, cocoa exports plummeted by 41%, going from $227 million to $134 million, a reduction largely explained by weather conditions.
According to representatives from the sector, in order to boost the crop in the country investment needs to be made in replacing plantations, as the performance currently recorded shows far from ideal figures.
In the agricultural sector fair held days ago in San Pedro Sula, more than two thousand business appointments were made between companies from 21 countries.
The event was held on May 17 and 18, and according to its organizers among the products that registered the highest demand were oriental vegetables, fresh vegetables, fruits and special coffees.
The market for fresh fruits and vegetables in this European country amounts to $25 billion, mostly in fruits, while processed vegetables amount to just over $4 billion.
From a report by Procomer Costa Rica entitled "Opportunities for marketing fresh and processed fruits and vegetables in Italy":
The fresh fruit and vegetable market in Italy is USD 25,071 mn, mostly fruit (68%), and the processed market is USD 4,272 mn in 2017.Both have opportunities to supply the food industry and, specifically the fresh ones, to enter the retail trade in the Italian off-season and with exotic products.
If Costa Rican businessmen still had doubts about the direction to be taken by the new Alvarado administration in agricultural matters, the affirmations made by the newly-appointed minister of Agriculture and Livestock have managed to dissipate them completely.
EDITORIAL
"...'The position that I bring to the ministry is to protect national production, with all the legal and technical instruments provided to us by treaty frameworks ...We are going to be very jealous with entries, no matter what they are, with meats, with potatoes.There has been a lot of laxity, non compliance with the regulations," said Renato Alvarado, the ministry's new leader, to Nacion.com.
At the agro-food fair to be held in San Pedro Sula, more than 3,000 people are expected to take part and it is thought that $50 million will be raised in 2,000 business appointments.
The Agromercados fair, which will take place on May 17 and 18 in San Pedro Sula, will include the participation of 300 exhibiting companies and another 500 visitors to the event.
Almost three years after the beginning of the restriction of avocado imports from Mexico, citing supposed phytosanitary issues, the Solis administration is now promoting exports of Costa Rican varieties of the fruit, while the local market suffers from shortages.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock announced with great fanfare that it has started an advice giving program to a group of Hass avocado producers in Tarrazú, so that they can start to export the fruit to European countries.
The decline in the US supply caused by the effects of Hurricane Irma on Florida plantations is an opportunity for Central American producers.
The international price of concentrated orange juice increased by 24% between early July this year and October 3, going from $1.25 per pound of solids to $1.55.Producers of the fruit in Costa Rica even believe that the price could rise more in the coming weeks.
On October 24th, a meeting of cocoa producers will be held in San Pedro Sula, where topics such as genetics and market opportunities will be discussed.
The forum, organized by the National Association of Cocoa Producers in Honduras, is expected to involve 400 producers and members of the National Committee of the Cocoa Chain.
Between 2014 and 2016, the amount of land sown with crops such as coffee, palm hearts, oil palm and sugar cane, was reduced by almost 8%.
Coffee, oil palm, sugar cane, orange, palmito, cocoa, coconut, pepper and tobacco are some of the crops classified as industrial, due to the processes through which they must pass before being consumed.