In Panama, a bill is planned to convert the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera into a Special Economic Zone, which will offer tax and labor incentives to companies in the agricultural sector that decide to invest in the area.
Representative Julio Mendoza, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, announced that in the coming weeks he will present a bill to the Assembly to create the Special Economic Zone of Azuero.
In Panama, decades ago the production of the sector represented 25% of the GDP, however, today this proportion barely reaches 2%, which is attributed to increased food imports and low soil productivity, among other factors.
Panamanian agricultural producers have been reporting difficulties in their activity for several years. This situation is reflected in the fall of the contribution made by this sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which fell from 25% in 1970 to 1.9% in 2018.
The plan being designed by the Guatemalan government is in the revision phase, and has the aim of encouraging production of the sector and relations between producers and consumers.
Regarding the objectives of the new policy being prepared by the authorities, Pablo Girón, head of the unit of the National Council for Agricultural Development (Conadea) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga), explained to Prensalibre.com that "...'The idea is to make economic development strategies for fruit production, with a vision, mission and pointing northwards, in the direction of where we want to go towards the future'."
To calm the spirits of local producers, the Panamanian government has announced the beginning of an audit of the process to import agrifood products, in order to identify companies that are bringing goods in without meeting any of the requirements.
A few days after producers in the country held demonstrations against the allegedly excessive entry of products such as dairy and meat, the government decided to form, together with representatives from the agricultural sector, a discussion table to solve some of the problems.However, this negotiation was abandoned by representatives of the unions.
The union of agricultural producers reports that at least ten private farms in Rivas, Matagalpa, Chinandega and Managua have been taken over by criminals.
In a statement, the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua denounced that it is registering an "... unchecked increase of invasions of farms" belonging to its members, in different zones in the country.
If Costa Rican businessmen still had doubts about the direction to be taken by the new Alvarado administration in agricultural matters, the affirmations made by the newly-appointed minister of Agriculture and Livestock have managed to dissipate them completely.
EDITORIAL
"...'The position that I bring to the ministry is to protect national production, with all the legal and technical instruments provided to us by treaty frameworks ...We are going to be very jealous with entries, no matter what they are, with meats, with potatoes.There has been a lot of laxity, non compliance with the regulations," said Renato Alvarado, the ministry's new leader, to Nacion.com.
Agricultural exports totaled $4.7 billion in 2016, equivalent to 45% of the total amount exported by the country, and grew by 7% compared to 2015.
The most recent Agricultural Statistical Bulletin (№ 27), by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, provides detailed information on the main indicators, area and production, prices, foreign trade, credit granted to the sector, wages, public expenditure and employment.
The union projects a 3.7% growth in activity in the agricultural sector, after having achieved an estimated 3.2% increase in 2016.
From a statement issued by the Chamber of Agriculture:
As it does at the beginning of every year, the Chamber of Agriculture this morning presented its partners the results of an economic study on agricultural which includes estimates for economic growth in the agro sector in 2016 and growth expectations for 2017 located at 3.7%.
The OECD has pointed to an overabundance of institutions: 11 institutes, 6 corporations, and 9 sectoral committees including organizations for children, young people and rural women.
Nacion.com explains that "...The OECD criticized the large number of institutions in the public agricultural sector and said that this complicates sectoral decision-making.An organizational chart requested of the Executive Secretariat for the Agricultural Sector Planning (Sepsa), attached to the MAG, shows that there are 11 institutions, six corporations (such as Corbana) and nine sectoral committees, among them the National Council Club 4-S "
On December 2 a conference will be held in Liberia, Costa Rica, on trends and characteristics of the wholesale marketing of agricultural products.
The Integral (PIMA) Agricultural Marketing Program of Costa Rica convened the event to be held on December 2 at the University of Costa Rica in Liberia, Guanacaste.
The main objective of this Congress is to analyze the system of wholesale marketing of food products in Costa Rica, to establish the implications for the national economy.
Only Costa Rica has an "well developed agricultural research system" in a region that "has lagged behind in terms of infrastructure, investment and research capabilities."
From a statement issued by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture:
San Jose, October 26, 2016 (IICA).The investment that some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have made in agricultural research has progressively increased in recent years, however, there are considerable differences with other countries in the region: some have investments of up to 1.8% of Real Agricultural Domestic Product (PIBag), but others invest only 0, 1%.
A bill proposes extending to the agribusiness sector the incentives outlined in Law 28, such as exemption from export tax and import of raw materials.
From a statement issued by from the National Assembly:
Extending the benefits of Law 28 of 1995 on the organization of production incentives, better known by its initals (in Spanish) ROI, was proposed through a bill put forward by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Raw materials, veterinary pharmaceuticals, pesticides, seeds and live animals are exempt from the 15% sales tax.
The current document sets out eight categories of items from raw materials,supplies, equipment and machinery used to produce them. The different classifications contain 323 tariff items for tax free products.
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:
A 'crime against humanity' is how 109 Nobel prize winners describe Greenpeace's stance against the production of genetically modified foods.
A group of Nobel laureates in various disciplines, referred to the need to produce food to feed the world's growing population, describing the environmental organization Greenpeace's opposition to the practice of precision agriculture as 'criminal'.