Last year export volumes of Costa Rica banana, pineapple, melon, and other tropical fruit greatly declined. Producers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the Promoter of Foreign Trade (PROCOMER), attribute the decline to several factors: the climate (very dry or very wet), the high costs of transportation, the competition from other countries, and the better prices producers found in the domestic market.
According to the statistics published by PROCOMER on its website, this affected exports of banana, pineapple, melon, watermelon, mango, and papaya.
The export volume of watermelon fell 6.5% between 2014 and 2015, from 34,537 tons to 32,303 tons. Watermelon exports have been declining since 2011.
Melon exports fell 2.4% from 130,868 tons to 127,723 tons. Papaya exports went from 4,774 tons in 2014 to 2,071 tons in 2015, i.e. a 56% decrease in exports.
Mango exports only decreased by 0.94% between 2014 and 2015. However exports have fallen from 11,577 tons in 2011 to 6,209 tons last year.
Banana and pineapple exports, the two strongest agricultural exports, had declines of 10% and 9.95% in 2015, respectively. According to producers, these decreases were due to excessive rainfall, the price of the dollar, and to 500 small pineapple producers quitting their production.
Guelberth Delgado, the owner of the Monandel Corporation SA, an exporter of mango and papaya, said that sending a kilo of fruit from Costa Rica to Madrid by plane costs between US$2.10 and US$2.30, while exporters only pay US$1.10 in Peru. “That sums it up. Exports have decreased because we are not competitive,” he said.
