Since Chile and Peru do not ship the product at the beginning of each year and that in the highlands of the country there are suitable areas to harvest the fruit, it is possible to take advantage of the commercial opportunities that exist in the foreign market.
Specialists agree that in order to increase the production of this fruit, producers must become more technified, access to credit must be facilitated and marketing policies must be implemented.
Due to the precariousness of the English language, in recent years’ companies in the Contact Center & BPO sector have decided to close thousands of jobs in the region and relocate their investments to other markets where they have no difficulty in recruiting qualified personnel.
Reports at a global level show that the command of English is one of the weaknesses at a Central American level.
The business sector in Guatemala is anticipating an increase in the prices of food and medicines, due to the government's decision to raise the cost of procedures such as the issuance of licenses and health registrations, required to market these products.
By means of Government Agreement 179-2020, which entered into force on December 1, 2020, new fees were imposed for the services of procedures for licenses, registrations and other processes for medicines, laboratories, pharmaceuticals, food products and others.
Since people are staying at home more because of changing consumer habits, Guatemalan entrepreneurs say that kitchen furniture, pergolas and other household items have been in the greatest demand.
Because of the economic crisis that resulted from the covid-19 outbreak, sales goals will not be met this year. Prior to the start of the pandemic, Guatemalan entrepreneurs in the sector estimated that by 2020 the amount of furniture and wood products sold would be $210 million, but in the current context, they forecast that the figure will be reduced to $160 million.
Because in today's business reality many people prefer to spend more time at home and cook their own food, the demand for easy-to-prepare processed seafood has grown.
At a global level, changes in consumer behavior have been reported, because of the quarantines decreed in several countries of the world by the outbreak of covid-19, people's habits, tastes and preferences have been changing.
A few days before the expiration of the crane service contract in Guatemala's Port of Santo Tomas de Castilla, local exporters expect a possible scenario of rising costs and slower operations.
The crane service contract was in force for 10 years and will expire on September 6. So far, businessmen do not know clearly what is the status of the tender, which the National Port Company Santo Tomas de Castilla (Empornac), must make to award the contract..
Some of the requirements for companies exporting food from Guatemala are that exporters guarantee good sanitary practices and that in case of an outbreak of covid-19 they notify their buyers and separate infected collaborators.
Safety and health protocols have taken off in this new trade scenario, which emerged suddenly due to the spread of covid-19 around the world.
In the new context of accelerated growth of e-commerce, most consumers claim to have had problems buying online, with delivery time failures and lack of service for their area being the most frequent complaints.
From June 8-12, a survey was conducted in Guatemala to measure people's perception of e-commerce, which has gained ground since Central American countries decided to decree severe household quarantines because of the covid-19 outbreak.
Because Costa Rica has imposed several restrictions on the movement of goods entering its territory, the Guatemalan government announced that it will apply reciprocal measures to Costa Rican transporters from June 9.
Businessmen in Guatemala estimate that patients who visit the country with the aim of buying medical treatment will take between 9 months and a year to regain confidence in making the trip.
The sector is practically paralyzed, since due to the covid-19 outbreak worldwide, several countries have decided to close their borders and air terminals, and airlines are keeping their units on the ground.
In the complex scenario of health crisis, companies in the pharmaceutical sector in Guatemala are facing shortages of raw materials, mainly those imported from the U.S., Europe and China.
In the context of the covid-19 outbreak, the pharmaceutical industry has kept alive and according to businessmen in the sector, the country's laboratories maintain their operations at an average of 70%.
It is estimated that by the end of 2019, Guatemalan exports registered a slight year-on-year increase of 1%; however, for this year, an increase of between 1.5% and 4% is expected.
Directors of the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat) reported that the prospects for this year are more favorable, since it is expected a better performance in exports of several products, including bananas.
During the eleven months that will pass between the beginning of the exit process from the European Union and the entry into force of the association agreement with Central America, trade relations with the United Kingdom will follow the same rules that have been in place until now.
In July 2019, the negotiations of the Association Agreement with the United Kingdom were completed, which contains the mechanism to address the preferential trade relations regulated between both parties, after the process of leaving the European Union, known as BREXIT, is completed.
With the recent signing of the U.S.-Canadian-Mexican trade agreement, a precedent was set for future negotiations, as this agreement sets binding labor conditions, such as making exports subject to the payment of a minimum wage.
For example, one of the conditions of the Treaty between Mexico, United States and Canada (T-MEC), which was signed on December 10, 2019, is that vehicles exported from one state of Mexico to the other two countries "must come from plants that pay wages not less than $16 an hour.
Guatemalan producers reported that for the 2018-2019 harvest, exports to these Asian markets gained importance, as Malaysia was sold 103,000 quintals of green coffee and 80,000 to China.
Figures from the National Coffee Association (Anacafe), specify that for the 2018-2019 agricultural cycle the export of coffee was 4.6 million quintals gold and generated a foreign exchange income of $663 million.