Due to the potential that Guatemala has and the commercial opportunities that are envisioned for the future, local authorities will begin to take steps so that the fruit harvested in the country is accepted in the U.S., the main importing market for the product.
In order to start with the procedures to approve the phytosanitary controls imposed by U.S. authorities, Guatemala is making an inventory of pests in the crop.
In order to improve the sector's production management and guarantee safe pork trade, the Guatemalan government is moving forward with the implementation of the Official Pork Traceability Program.
The program, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga), consists of placing radiofrequency button-type and flag-type devices for breeding animals.
Because of the humidity of the soils, a phenomenon that was caused by the heavy rains generated by the passage of the tropical depressions Eta and Iota, local authorities warn that the crops could be affected by diseases and pests.
According to representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA), crops such as coffee, bananas and vegetables could face the greatest risks.
In Guatemala, for the months when the quarantine was most severe, sales of live cattle were cut in half due to movement restrictions, lack of transportation, and market closures.
Due to the covid-19 outbreak, authorities agreed to impose severe restrictions on the circulation of people during April, May, June, and July, including total closures of the economy during several weekends.
Congress approved a decree obliging the Ministry of Agriculture to fumigate banana and plantain plantations.
Decree 7-2020 approved the Law for the Protection of Banana and Plantain Crops in the Republic of Guatemala, a law that, in addition to protecting banana crops, also promotes the economic development of the banana sector, Congress reported in a press release.
In order for Guatemalan producers to compete under the same conditions as neighboring countries, the government is preparing a bill that seeks to exempt agricultural inputs from VAT.
The initiative, known as the "Fiscal Equity Law", is being prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga), because, according to the institution's top official, other Central American countries do not charge value-added tax (VAT) on agricultural inputs.
The protocol allowing Guatemalan companies to sell live cattle in the neighboring country will come into effect on December 15, 2019.
After the negotiation process between Mexican and Guatemalan authorities has concluded and the sanitary regulations for the entry of animals have been approved, the Central American country has the green light to start selling live cattle.
Costa Rica has updated the mandatory phytosanitary measures for imports, while in Guatemala protocols are being implemented in the fields where the fruit is harvested, because of the threat of Fusarium R4T disease.
Because Guatemalan authorities have not yet completed the health control program, local producers cannot export live cattle to Mexico, where they could sell between 10,000 and 15,000 head a month.
For Guatemalan cattle ranchers, Southern Mexico is an attractive market, because there is interest on the part of Mexican businessmen to buy standing cattle at better prices than those quoted in Guatemala.
The Guatemalan health authorities recommend not authorizing the import and marketing of meat from the South American country, arguing that there have been cases of foot-and-mouth disease.
At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga) issued an opinion on the possibility of commercializing in the local market meat and its derivatives, of Argentine origin.
After the death of at least two thousand head of cattle was reported in Guatemala, authorities and producers agreed to work to establish "in a scientific manner, the cause of bovine mortality.
For the purpose of determining in a conclusive way the factors that cause this sanitary phenomenon in Petén, several sectors of the productive chain of meat and milk of this department were summoned last Monday, March 18, to integrate a technical table that establishes in a scientific way, the reason for bovine mortality, explained the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA), in a press release.
In Guatemala, two importing companies claim not to be able to bring in this type of fruit imported from Mexico, because the Ministry of Agriculture requires them to present a phytosanitary certificate that their suppliers do not issue.
Because the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) of Guatemala, requires a phytosanitary export certificate which must indicate that avocados coming into the country are free of the Sunblotch virus, since May 11 importing companies have not been able to bring in the product.
The self-declaration of the bird flu in Peten could be extended to other departments, fostering new investments and the possibility of exporting to Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Caribbean.
After 16 years of not being able to export eggs, Petén is the first department to achieve self-declaration of being free from low pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza in compliance with national and international standards, and as part of a gradual process which the government intends to complete in order to declare the self-declaration in other areas of the country in 2017 and 2018, which would generate new export opportunities for the poultry industry.
The union Camagro claims that in the last six months adverse investment and employment conditions have become more pronounced.
From a statement issued by Camagro:
The members of the Chamber dedicated to agricultural, agro-industrial and agri-export activities in the 22 departments of the country, expressed through a press release, that they believe that the country's competitiveness is still not being unattended to, and that during these six months the Government has caused adverse investment and employment conditions to be more pronounced.The three most criticised ministries being: the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of the Interior, for the main reasons which are summarized as follows:
The Ministry of Agriculture ordered the measure due to an increase of the pest in Guatemalan forests, in order to have more resources to combat it.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) in Guatemala declared a state of sanitary emergency due to a significant increase in pine weevils in the country, and the threat posed by the scourge of this species in the coniferous forests of Honduras, reported Prensalibre.com.
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