The meeting will be held on Monday July 20, when representatives of the Government and of the Costa Rican business sector get together to discuss the different alternatives that would permit, if possible, reactivating imports of avocado from Mexico.
According to a statement issued by the entrepreneurs, the discussion will be held within the framework of the consolidation of a national scientific table that analyses the true phytosanitary risks posed by the import of avocados from Mexico.
The representatives of the Chambers and the Government reached this agreement after a meeting they held on Monday, July 6, at the Presidential Palace.
"We expect to clarify if the measures were taken for technical compliance, so that the private sector has the certainty that they were properly applied, or if it was an error of the Administration, in which case it should be corrected", said José Manuel Hernando, President of the Costa Rican Chamber of Food industry (Cacia) and spokesman for the sectors involved.
On June 19 a group of businesses made up by the Cacia, the Chamber of importers and exporters of perishable goods from Costa Rica (CEIPPCR), Costa Rica's Chamber of Commerce, the country's Chamber of Foreign Trade, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Cicomex), the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), the Chamber of Restaurants (Cacore) and the consumers Association of Costa Rica (Concori) stated the need to establish working groups to establish solutions for the restriction on imports of some agricultural products.
The Ministers of Agriculture and Foreign Trade attended the meeting.
"We feel there is a positive environment because the Ministers tended bridges to analyse the technical and scientific perspective of the measures imposed in the last few months and to examine if there are solutions, from the technical point of view, that would help revive trade, which has been severely crippled," continued Hernando.
Expectations are there will also be a meeting in the next two weeks to analyse the problems regarding pork meat and potato.
Costa Rica closed its borders to imports of Mexican Avocados since May 5. According to the plant protection service of the State (SFE), the measure responds to the need of protecting the country's plant health from the sun blotch, which Mexico identified in its avocado crops in 2009.
