The willingness to stop exports of red beans between mid-2010 and September 2011, resulted in Nicaragua earning bad reputation as a trading partner.
According to Enrique Zamora, president of the Association of Producers and Exporters of Nicaragua (APEN), in 2010, "the government was warned that what it was doing was wrong", mainly because of the cost invested in turning it (the beans) from a subsistence product in 1996 into a product which generated $80 million in exports.
The entry into force on 19 October of the FTA with Chile will expand opportunities for Nicaraguan products.
Over 97% of the supply of Nicaragua’s exportable products now enters the Chilean market duty free. According to the manager of the Export and Investment Center (CEI in Spanish), Roberto Brenes, in the next few years, exports may be duplicated.
Small producers have started exporting taro, cassava, quiquisque and ginger to the Caribbean island, which buys from Nicaragua some $45 million worth of products per year.
"We made a projection of sales to Puerto Rico of 9.3 million dollars per year and demand will be at least three containers a week," said Nazario Mejia, president of the cooperative Tierra Buena, New Segovia (north), which has already made the first shipment.
The dilemma is between domestic supply and export of red beans.
At the Agritade agricultural fair held in Guatemala, the Nicaraguan red bean was highly sought after.
The bean purchase commitments are for 550 metric tons (about 12 thousand bushels) for CAC-Trading, 96 containers (42.240 quintals) purchased to Distribuidora El Carmen and two containers (880 quintals) of bean seed requested to Agroexport.
So far 2011, Canada is the second largest trading partner, with a total of $ 55 million in exports from January to March.
During the same period of 2010, the amount of sales to that country amounted to $ 16.8 million.
Despite improvement in exports, María José Guerrero, executive at the Center for Exports and Investment said it is necessary to increase the number of exportable products in order to increase sales.