Costa Rica - greenhouse vegetables

My last stop in Costa Rica was at a greenhouse vegetable operation. My hosts here Alex Rojas Vargas and Ana Marcela Hernandez. I will develop more coverage of the emerging greenhouse vegetable industry in Costa Rica, but the future includes cucumbers now and tomatoes in the near future...

Costa Rica - Empacadora La Perla

Costa Rica is a big exporter of cassava to the U.S. My stop at Empacadora La Perla during my visit to Costa Rica showed what cassva looks like in the field. Also pictured, plantains for the domestic market, pumpkins/squash packed for export to the Caribbean.

Costa Rica - canned pineapple and heart of palm

Another stop on my Nov. 11-15 trip to Costa Rica was at Alpigo, a shipper of canned pineapple and heart of palm. Their website is www.alpigo.com. The company offers canned heart of palm and also an air-shipped vacuum packed fresh product.

Costa Rica - Agromonte, S.A.

One of the more fascinating places I've been in my produce career was this pineapple farm in Costa Rica. I'll have some coverage in The Packer this week...

B & C - Costa Rica

Alberto Bonilla, director of sales for Costa Rica based B & C Exportadores examines chayote at the company's farm. During peak season from November to February, the firm exports about 20 containers of chayote and tubers weekly from Costa Rica to global markets, with about 80% bound for the U.S. Following is a slide show that features Alberto and also his sister Laura Bonilla.

Corporacion Horticola - Costa Rica

Here are shots from Corporacion Horticola in Cartago, Costa Rica.I'll expand this post last as I transcribe more of my interview with company officials.

Corporacion Horticola - Costa Rica

My second visit on Nov. 12 was to the offices of Cartago, Costa Rica- based Corporacion Horticola. Here is a powerpoint presented by company officials about their operation. I will also put up a slideshow revealing and further report about their research into greenhouse tomato production....

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.

Costa Rica - poised for CAFTA at long last

Costa Rica is finally ready to join the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. The country had been the only straggler in Central America to join the pact, largely because signing on would mean significantly changing their revenue stream they obtain from imports. Traders I visited with this week here in Costa Rica were pleased with the development, noting that even though Costa Rica's fresh exports have enjoyed tariff free access to the U.S. because of extension of the Central American/Caribbean Basin Initiative. Now - when CAFTA is finalized - growers and packers in Costa Rica can buy U.S. machinergy, inputs and farm equipment for their operations at zero tariff. This, of course, is also a positive for U.S. fresh produce exports to Costa Rica. Here is the story from The Tico Times, the English language news in Costa Rica.



Costa Rica has cleared the last hurdle to joining the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

Lawmakers this week passed the last bill required to enter the treaty, which also includes Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

A Costa Rican delegation will meet with U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., this month to finalize the pact.

In addition to knocking down trade barriers, the treaty will strengthen intellectual property rights and open the state telecommunications and insurance monopolies.

Costa Rica signed CAFTA in May 2004. Voters approved it in a referendum in October 2007. It has been delayed by filibustering by opposition lawmakers.

Costa Rica papayas

Alberto Gonzalez and Eric Mora, researchers at the San Jose, Costa Rica based University of Costa Rica show off the pococi and rica varieties of papayas that they believe may have promise in the export market. Gonzalez said Costa Rica is keen to gain a reputation in papaya and other tropical fruit that it enjoys in pineapples. Costa Rica papaya exporters have petitioned the USDA for access to the U.S. market in 2005 but have not received approval yet.



Here in Costa Rica on Tuesday night, had an interesting visit earlier in the day with the above University of Costa Rica researchers using non-GMO techniques to breed papaya varieties for export markets. Tomorrow mini-vegetables, chayote and perhaps a volcano in the scenic background.

Costa Rica bound

I'm headed to Costa Rica today for a few days to explore Costa Rica agriculture. Hopefully I will have a chance to blog from the road, as my hosts will show me a wide diversity of agribusiness, including papaya, pineapple, mini-vegetables and more.

I see that President Bush has asked Congressional Democrats and president-elect Barack Obama to support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in exchange for expedited help for U.S. automakers. One hopes that Democrats and Obama follow the advice of economics guru Nouriel Roubini and support free trade, for the sake of the global economy and U.S. agriculture.