Authorities from both countries agreed that Costa Rica would accept avocado from Mexico, as long as it has a phytosanitary certificate indicating that the shipment is "symptom-free."
The State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) of Costa Rica, managed to agree in December 2018 with the new Mexican authorities, the procedure to end almost four years of trade conflict, which emerged from the barriers imposed on the entry of avocado to the Costa Rican market.
Hass avocados from Mexico can be imported in containers, provided that they come certified as fruit containers that are free from the sunspot disease or from areas certified as free.
The proposal put forward by the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) to the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures at the WTO, where the conflict between Costa Rica and Mexico is being resolved, establishes that the fruit may be imported in any of three circumstances: the fruit is sent with a certificate that guarantees that it does not have sunspot, with a certificate that comes from areas free of the disease, or where there is compliance with rules agreed bilaterally by the two countries.
Following the same strategy that they used to block the entry of Mexican avocados, in Costa Rica local producers of the fruit now want to prevent imports coming in from Peru.
Producers from the Los Santos area say that the avocados entering the country from Peru are contaminated with the Sunblotch plague, and asked the State Phytosanitary Service to close the Costa Rican market to the Peruvian fruit.
Importers could assume the cost of a laboratory test to determine the absence of the sunblotch disease so that the SFE can authorize entry into the country.
<span dir="ltr">The proposal was raised by the SFE in a meeting held with Mexican authorities in late February.
In Costa Rica since the government suspended imports of Mexican avocados in May 2014, the average wholesale price of the fruit went up by 19% in 2015 and 16% last year.
Since the country stopped the imports of mexican avocados because of the alleged presence of the sunblotch plague, the price of this fruit in the local market has kept on rising.Although avocados are now imported from seven different countries, total imports have fallen 25% since then, and the average price has recorded since then an annual increase of 18%.
The ban on Mexican avocado has led to an increase in imports from Chile, raising its wholesale price by more than 30%, and will cause shortages when locally produced supplies have been exhausted.
Protectionism for the Costa Rican production of avocados introduced by the Solis administration, arguing phytosanitary measures, achieved results that benefited local producers, such as increasing the price of the product and a decline in import volumes (13,061 tons in 2013 vs . 11,187 in 2015). But what is good for the local producer, is bad for consumers who are forced to pay more for the fruit, as well as seeing their right to choose what to consume violated, and eventually being prevented from simply consuming anything at all because there is no supply.
Establishing areas free of the sunblotch pest and certify them according to international standards is what Mexico has proposed in order to sell avocados to Costa Rica once again.
The proposal submitted by Mexico to the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica and the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) includes the establishment of certain areas of fruit cultivation which are certified to be free of the pest. This certification would be done according to international health standards and would have the backing of the SFE.
Guatemala and Mexico have joined forces in their complaints to the WTO over restrictions on the importation of Hass Avocados.
The concerns of these two countries were presented at the monthly meeting of the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the World Trade Organization, where Guatemala and Mexico also expressed concern about the trade impact of the measure imposed by Costa Rica.
From Mexico, where the sunblotch disease has been present for 100 years, Costa Rica imports 80% of the avocados it consumes, but has now banned imports, citing contamination risk.
An article on Elfinancierocr.com reports that the Mexican phytosanitary authorities questioned "... the basis of the decision made by the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) in Costa Rica to stop importing avocados from Mexico and seven more markets. " ... "Mexicans indicated that" ... in analyzing the arrangement to stop the importation of Mexican avocados there is a lack of "scientific evidence that justifies the decision of the SFE".
Warnings are being given of shortages in the market, after the Phytosanitary Service banned the import of the fruit from nine markets.
According to the director of the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE), at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the decision to ban imports of avocados from Australia, Spain, Ghana, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Florida, in the US, was taken to prevent the entry of the virus known as Sun Blotch, present in these markets. The Chamber of Importers of Perishables Products ensures that there will be a shortage because "... only 20% of total consumption (14,000 tonnes) are harvested in Costa Rica."
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