ADAPEX - Costa Rica mini vegetables

ADAPEX, a, Cartago, Costa Rica-based mini vegetable marketer (label Minys) was my first visit of Wednesday of Nov. 12 during my Nov. 11-15 trip to Costa Rica, sponsored by the Foreign Trade Corporation of Costa Rica (Procomer) . ADAPEX - representing 35 associated growers with farms that average 4 or 5 hectares each - exports mini vegetables to the U.S. and Canada and radicchio to Italy. Overall area produced is about 75 hectares.
The first started exporting to the U.S. in 1996 after exhibiting in the PMA show. Tarcisio Mora is the general manager of ADAPEX and is pictured in the last couple of shots in the slide show. Some of the products the company markets include baby zucchini, baby corn, baby carrots and radicchio. The mini-vegetables are shipped by air to the U.S. in 1,000 kilogram air containers, while radicchio is shipped in 15 metric ton ocean containers to Italy, with that trip taking about 15 days. Italy receives about 12 containers of radicchio per year,, Mora said, while mini vegetable shipments to the U.S. can run as many as three cargo planes per week.
The peak shipping season for mini vegetables is January through August and by mid-November the firm was exporting baby corn to the U.S. Meanwhile, radicchio season for Italy is February through April - the only months of the year Italy is not producing the commodity. Mora said 45% of a worker's wage in Costa Rica is comprised of social charges (health insurance, social security), which makes Costa Rican labor rates more expensive than its neighbor and rival in Guatemala. ADAPEX is in the process for HACCP certification for 2009 and also plans to expand marketing of mini vegetables to Europe next year. Mora said European buyers are generally more stringent on food safety audits than U.S. buyers but both markets are moving to certification of Good Agricultural Practices. Mora also said that the troubles in the U.S. - plus competition from other Central American countries in mini vegetables - is increasing the importance of finding new markets for mini vegetables in Europe. Mora also said growers are pleased that Costa Rica lawmakers last week finalized the process to make CAFTA effective, as that will open the door to zero tariffs on machinery and other inputs from the U.S.