Following Costa Rica's decision to impose requirements on the entry of avocados grown in Honduras, Costa Rican businessmen believe that these unilateral measures could generate trade retaliation for the country.
Arguing that molecular biology tests detected the presence of the Avocado Sunblotch viroid in shipments from Honduras, the Costa Rican State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) decided to start taking samples to analyze Honduran avocados.
In the Dominican Republic, avocado and bananas are the crops with the highest growth potential, because of the behavior of global demand.
The National Competitiveness Council of the Dominican Republic and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) presented the "Study and Diagnosis of Agricultural Chains" in which the analysis of ten value chains was carried out for agricultural products such as: avocado, cocoa, banana, coconut, mango, pineapple, greenhouse vegetables, oriental vegetables, chinola and cassava.
In recent years, Dominican avocado exports have tripled, mainly because of sales to the U.S. and Puerto Rican markets.
Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture detail that avocado exports from the Dominican Republic between 2015 and 2017 have increased from $13 million to $36 million, and in the case of sales to the U.S. and Puerto Rico have increased from $8 million to $29 million and from one million dollars to $5 million, respectively, for the years concerned.