Maize production declined from 20.4 million hundredweight in the 2012/13 harvest to 15.6 million in the 2015/16 cycle, and yield per cultivated hectare has also declined.
In the case of beans, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) show greater variability, depending on the bean and crop variety, as some have reported better results.However, bean productivity has deteriorated in recent harvests. Laprensagrafica.com reports that"... performance went from 15.1 hundredweight per hectare on average in the 2014/15 season, to 13.1 in the 2015/16 cycle."
The "Trump effect", added to the upward pressure caused by inflation in US interest rates, explains the upward trend in the performance of Costa Rican bonds and the fall in their price.
A resumption of the upward trend seen in debt securities traded on the international market could make it difficult for the government access external financing, in a context in which most bonds from emerging market countries are experiencing the same situation.If the government decides to resort to financing in the international market, the cost of doing so would be higher if bond yields continue to rise.
Low interest rates in the international market have favored Costa Rican sovereign debt bonds which are yielding better dividends.
Higher rates paid out by Costa Rican bonds with their associated risk level, coupled with an international context of low interest rates, has led to increased demand for foreign debt bonds, which "... have appreciated between 14% and 30%" so far this year.
Panama manage to issue bonds on the international market with a margin of only 2.05% above the 10-year US Treasury benchmark.
The margin of 205 basis points over the 10-year US Treasury bond was even better than that achieved by other countries in the region with equal or better risk ratings, such as Colombia (BBB), Mexico (BBB +) and Uruguay (BBB), which in their 10-year term emissions were paid 245pbs, 210pbs and 245pbs, respectively.
The interest rate rise in the US and the perceived risk of the Salvadoran economy have taken their toll on foreign debt bonds, whose yields have risen by about 2% in recent weeks.
This increase in yield of debt securities traded on the international market will be reflected in the forthcoming issues made by the government, which, according to economic analyst Mauricio Choussy, "...
The rise of interest rates in US is one of the reasons behind the lower demand for Costa Rican debt bonds, which are perceived as riskier because they are not investment grade.
When US interest rates began to fall, international investors sought riskier options and performances, such as external debt bonds rated below investment grade in countries such as Costa Rica.
The sector expects to end the current crop production harvest with 8 million hundredweight, 1.5 million more than in the 2014/15 cycle.
The reason behind the projected increase is the improvement in crop yield, since, according to entrepreneurs reports, productivity per acre rose from ".... between 7 and 8 hundredweight per acre to 14 hundredweight per acre." In fact in "...
It has been noted that lack of a national policy for development of the sector in the long term has prevented more than 2 million hundredweight from being produced on average every year since 2000.
Production has stagnated, with figures close to two million hundredweight for the past three years, surpassed by Guatemala and Honduras, with production levels 4 and 6 million respectively.
With a yield of 12.2 tons per hectare, the industry produced 2.8 million metric tons in the 2013/2014 harvest, generating $1.13 billion for the production of sugar, alcohol and molasses.
During the 2013/2014 harvest a total of 1.9 million metric tons (MT) of sugar was exported, of which 162,000 were sent to Ghana and Tunisia and 45,000 to China. Guatemala currently ranks third in sugar yield, competing with Colombia and Swaziland, which are in first place with 14.6 and 13.9 tons per hectare, respectively.
A request has been made that the interest rate paid by the government for using funds from the Pension Trust Bond rise from 1.3% to 7.5%.
Elsalvador.com reports that "... The leaders of the Committee requested yesterday that a new article specifically state that pension funds earn the passive base interest rate used for investments of 180 days and published by the Central Bank plus 3.5% ..
The difference in the yield on 30-year bonds relative to US Treasuries of the same period went from 3.33% in April to 3.85% up to December 4th.
The decision by the Executive to increase public spending in 2015 and continue to increase the fiscal deficit in an international environment which is a less favorable than it was in previous years is one of the reasons that explains the higher risk now being perceived by international investors regarding Costa Rican foreign debt bonds.
The risk premium demanded by investors for the Costa Rican international bond due in 2023 rose from 2.10% to 2.56% between June and September 2014.
Investors could be moving towards a degradation of the sovereign rating of the country, a possibility already suggested by Fitch rating agency.
An article on Nacion.com reports that "... Since last June, the extra rate of return that foreign savers demand for Costa Rican Government's securities in respect to United States Treasuries (so-called risk premium or margin) has gone. "
The new Central Bank methodology which establishes preferential rates for large public sector deposits could influence other rates in the financial system.
The new methodology implemented by the Central Bank of Costa Rica aims to set benchmarks for public banks to provide preferential rates to state entities, but which "... at the same time, do not have excessive returns so that the market does not feel pressure to up rates. "
The increase in production to 24,500 tons and rising international prices took revenues from this category from $74 million to $150 million in three years.
In the last ten years Nicaragua has made progress in the modernization of production of farmed shrimp and improved the processes of industrialization, reaching a production of 24,500 tons in 2013. It is currently the second largest Central American producer, second only to Honduras which produced 28,900 tons in 2013.
The T9 variety of tomato seed, which comes from a cross between a hybrid and a Creole tomato, obtained the best performance per hectare in the 2013-2014 agricultural season.
Using the T9 seed, which provides fruits weighing nearly a pound and yields over a thousand quintals per hectare, industrial tomato farmers in the Panamanian province of Los Santos managed to harvest 8,400 tons of tomatoes in the recently concluded season increasing their production by 33.3 % compared to the agricultural cycle 2012-2013.