The lifting of the restriction on imports of Mexican avocados will depend on a pest risk analysis performed by the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE).
The government is awaiting for this report to determine the future of avocado imports from the Aztec country.
The productive sector remains hopeful that Marco Vinicio Jimenez, the new director of the SFE, will lift the restriction established by his predecessor, Francisco Dall'Allanesse, who resigned last week.
Alexander Mora, the Minister of Foreign Trade, said the SFE had a technical basis to determine how to perform the analysis.
"The SFE has defined a technical basis for what they are going to do. We are waiting for them to present a pest risk analysis, as we've been told it's already been done.
It should be the support used by the Ministry, the SFE, and the MAG to change their current position. The change will come because the procedure allows making that change," he added.
Regarding a rapprochement with the Mexican authorities, Mora said he had met with the Agricultural authorities in Mexico last week and that they were in the process of reviewing issues.
"The [Mexican] minister gave me his perspective. At this time, the ball is in Mexican ground because minister Arauz made them a proposal and they haven't answered yes or not to it yet," he said.
The ban on imports of Mexican avocados started on May 5, 2015, after the country considered that the avocado sun blotch plague affected humans.
Costa Rica imports 15,000 tons of avocado, 80% of which it used to import from Mexico.
Source: laprensalibre.cr