The main factors are a herd of 5.8 million head of cattle, programs which give impetus to the activity, and the opportunities provided by the AA with the EU.
According to breeders and industry to date number of cattle could be higher than that amount recorded in the IV National Agricultural Census (4.2 million head). Onel Pérez, executive director of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Beef Exports (Canicarne) , currently estimated that the herd could be 5.8 million head.
Chicken meat imports in Costa Rica had a growth of 57% in 2012 over the previous year, while beef only grew 46%.
From the report:
In 2012 the country imported $48.3 million worth, an increase of 28% compared to the previous year.
Imports of frozen bovine meat recorded the highest increase in monetary terms, with imports in 2012 having increased by more than $4.4 million compared with the previous year, going from $9.6 million in 2011 to approximately $14 million in 2012.
The country is claiming to be free of the disease known as ‘Mad Cow Syndrome’.
Government representatives have asked the Animal Health Agency to grant the country a rating of "negligible risk" for the disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), known as ‘Mad Cow Disease’.
In Central America the only country with this classification is Panama. In the rest of the region, countries like the United States and Mexico hold the category of ‘controlled risk’.
Meat processing plants foresee slaughtering 250,000 more cattle by 2014, a 38% increase.
Onel Pérez, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Beef Exporters (Canicarne), noted that they expect to slaughter 650,000 animals in 2010, out of a maximum capacity of 1.1 million in the country's 4 processing plants.
Pérez remarked that 'certified slaughterhouses have made considerable investments to handle the expected increase'.