During the first three months of 2019, companies in Central American countries imported insecticides, herbicides and fungicides for $132 million, and purchases from Mexican companies grew 12% over the same period in 2018.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
From January to March 2019, Central American exports of vegetables totaled $56 million, 5% less than what was reported in the same period in 2018, a decrease explained by the behavior of sales to companies in the United States.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
In the first three months of 2019, Central American countries recorded $590 million in banana sales abroad, 6% less than reported in the same period of 2018.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
After last year's sales of grain abroad grew 19% compared to 2017, in the first eight months of 2019 Nicaraguan cocoa exports totaled $5.8 million, 48% more than in the same period of 2018.
Regarding the volume traded, the figures of the Exports Processing Center (Cetrex) that between January and August 2018 and the same period of 2019, the figure increased from 2,433 to 3,405 tons.
In recent years, the downward trend in the average price of regional frozen fruit exports has not been reversed, since between June 2016 and March 2019 it fell from $1.60 to $1.19 per kilo.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
With the entry into force of the tax reform, banana production costs in Nicaragua have increased between 30% and 35%, because of the rise in the price of agrochemicals.
For the 2018-2019 harvest, the country began to export coffee of the Robusta variety, and according to the producers for the next agricultural cycles they plan to increase their cultivable area.
According to figures from the Center for Export Procedures (Cetrex) between October 2018 and May 2019, the country sold abroad about 50,000 quintals of the Robusta variety, being the first time that the species of the grain is reported in official export figures.
During 2018, Nicaraguan exports of this fruit totaled just $3.3 million, 26% less than in 2017, and the price fell 50% last year.
Figures from the Production and Trade Plan 2019-2020 detail that in 2018 the country sold abroad 126,400 quintals of mango, 13% less than what was exported in 2017.
The price of boxes of 4 kilograms of mango also reported a decrease for last year, falling from between $6.5 and $8 that is recorded in a normal year, to $3 and $3.5 that was reported in 2018.
In the first nine months of 2018, Central American countries exported pineapple for $828 million, 9% more than in the same period in 2017, mainly because of sales to U.S. companies.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphics]
During the first nine months of 2018, the main regional crop exported was coffee, with $2,493 million, followed by banana, with $1,939 million, pineapple, with $825 million and sugar, with $645 million.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
Between February 2016 and March 2017, the average price of palm oil exports from Central America increased from $0.54 to $0.74 per kilo, however, in September 2018 the kilo of the product was resold at $0.54.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
In the first nine months of 2018, Central American countries recorded $1.928 million in banana sales abroad, and exports to the Netherlands increased 5% over the same period in 2017.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
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.
In December 2018, it was reported that the international price of a pound of coffee fell to $1, which is equivalent to a 12% drop compared to the same month in 2017.
Data from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) detail that in the last two months of last year also reported a decline in the price of the pound of coffee globally, in this case was 8% as it declined from $1.09 to $1.