Even though employers insist there well be a strong shortage of avocados, the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) considers that there will be no shortage of the fruit in coming weeks as it has processed import permits to bring avocado from Peru, Nicaragua, Chile and Panama.
Francisco Dall'Anesse, director of the SFE declined to say how many tons would enter the country after the approval of the permits. He said those numbers would only be given when the fruit enters the country, but he insisted that there would be no shortages because of these permits.
There was no lack of avocados during May, even though the SFE stopped issuing permits for imports of avocado from Mexico on the 5 of that month. Mexico is the world's leading exporter and Costa Rica imports 12,000 tons of the 15,000 tons it consumes each year from said country. The ban on Mexican fruit was issued by the SFE as a protective measure for the presence of the Sun Blotch disease in that country, a disease that still hasn't affected Costa Rica.
Despite this justification, Yolanda Fernandez, president of the Chamber of Industry and Trade between Costa Rica and Mexico (Cicomex), stated that no technical criterion was used to take the measurement and that Costa Rica had imported the fruit from Mexico for over 20 years without causing any harm to Costa Rican plantations.
What product imports are going to be affected in the coming days because of a sanitary measure without technical criteria? Fernandez asked. However, she did not qualify the measures taken by Costa Rica as protectionist.
Meanwhile, Dall'Anesse, acknowledged that several shipments of avocado from Mexico, which had approved permits dating to before May 5 had entered the country during May and that could have had an effect on the month's supply.
However, the officer said, the health measure had had little impact in May. According to him, during May 2015 Costa Rica imported 1.74644 million kilos of avocado while in May 2014 the country imported 1,239,377 kilos. In addition, in May 2013 total imports amounted to 1.373.780 million kilos, according to the official data of SFE.
Impact
Alvaro Figueroa, from the International Fruit Company, one of the leading importers of fruit, insisted, as he did last week, that they would have to lay off staff because of the blockage on imports from Mexico. He added that the national avocado is different from the Hass variety and as other fruit from South America that does not have the same quality and condition as the Mexican Hass influenced the current offer. South America's offer and the national offer matures very fast, loses consistency and rots, he said.
The Auto Mercado supermarket chain stated in an email that the avocado they offered in their outlets was 100% from Mexico. Due to the blockade on avocado imports, they added, the company is exploring various options with three Costa Rican import companies. "They have already negotiated avocado imports from other countries and they are expected to enter the country in the third week of June so we can supply our supermarkets and not affect consumers," they stated.
Meanwhile, Walmart stated that they had enough product to supply their stores for a few more weeks. "Currently, they added, we are being supplied by the domestic production. The local harvest, however, is limited. The measure imposed by the State Phytosanitary Service limits the sources of supply and so there is a high risk that prices will increase, to the detriment of consumers."
Source: nacion.com