By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The government decreed Tuesday an increase in the minimum price of a box of bananas for export that will be effective as of Jan. 1.

The increase is $0.67 per 18.14-kilo box, which raises the minimum price to $8.36 for each box destine for exported.

Decree No. 42,112 was signed by President Carlos Alvarado and the ministers, Renato Alvarado, Victoria Hernández and Dyalá Jiménez, before the president's trip to Switzerland.

According to the government, the price change responds to technical parameters according to the needs of the sector in terms of costs and production and, therefore, allows maintaining the country's competitiveness in first-quality fruits exported by the country.

"This is the minimum price that banana exporting companies will have to pay to independent producers and apply for premium fruit, a value in Costa Rican port," said Alvarado, minister of Agriculture. "In some cases, it also functions as a reference value for negotiations, in particular, destination markets where the endowment to set prices is limited."

The increase allows maintaining the competitiveness of Costa Rican bananas in international markets and also helps independent producers, who have high production costs, said the government.

According to Jorge Sauma, manager of the National Corporation of Banana Producers, the importance of this new price is to give sustainability to a sector that has a high impact on the national economy.

"For some time the producers have requested an adjustment in the export price of bananas," said Sauma.

According to the corporation, the independent producers provides 50% of the production in the country.

The independent producers creates 150,000 direct jobs and more than 1 billion annual export dollars, said the government.
















 
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