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Sugar production and exports are projected slightly up in marketing year (MY) 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025) because of the increase in productivity yields, harvested area, and additional investments made in the sugar sector and increased exports.

Though relatively small, the Costa Rican food processing sector relies on U.S. exporters to maintain critical supply chains. Proximity, reliability, and familiarity help make the United States the preferred supplier for a wide range of food processing ingredients, including wheat, corn, and animal proteins.

FAS/San José expects Costa Rican sugar production in marketing year 2023/24 to recover from a 20-year low in the previous year and to continue to rise in marketing year 2024/25 on expanded area planted to sugarcane as producers in Guanacaste continue to abandon rice production.

Post forecasts Mexico’s sugar production at 5.5 million metric tons raw value (MMT-RV) for marketing year (MY) 2024/25 (October 1 – September 30), 13 percent higher than the estimate for MY 2023/24.

Sugar cane production in marketing year (MY) 2025 is forecast at 10.2 milllion metric tons (MMT). Cane sugar production in MY 2025 is forecast to reach 1.3 MMT, increasing 14 percent compared to the previous year.

Argentine wheat production in marketing year (MY) 2024/2025 is forecast at 16.8 million tons, 1 million tons higher than the previous weather-affected season. Exports are projected to remain practically flat at 10 million tons (including wheat flour in its wheat equivalent.

Haiti’s rice imports for marketing year July 2024 through June 2025 (MY 2024/2025) are forecast at 475,000 metric tons (MT), marginally higher compared to the previous marketing period driven by ongoing challenges to increase local production. Rice...

Colombia is the largest South American market for U.S. agricultural products and the seventh-largest market for U.S. food and beverage exports globally. Since the U.S. – Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) was implemented in 2012, U.S. agricultural exports have grown by more than 235 percent to a record $3.7 billion in 2023.

FAS/San José anticipates Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Trade to allocate 2024 Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement rice quota allocations by the end of April, effectively constraining the availability of U.S. duty-free rice to the final eight months of 2024. Though Costa Rica typically allocates quota volumes in December of the preceding year, calculations of 2024 volumes have been contested by importers following an extraordinary process resulting from a 2022 cyber attack.

Costa Rica reinstated 35 percent tariffs on non-U.S.-origin rice after an administrative court overturned an August 2022 tariff reduction and the Government’s appeal was rejected. Demand for U.S. rice has surged following the tariff restoration on reduced South American-origin rice competitiveness.

Despite continued economic, security and political constraints, U.S. – Ecuador bilateral agricultural and related product trade rose to $4.4 billion in 2023. In addition, U.S. agricultural and related product exports to Ecuador reached a record $805.6 million.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency updated its labeling requirements for fresh grapes and the use of sulfur dioxide gas on fresh grapes during storage and transport – a result of the reclassification of sulfur dioxide when used under different scenarios.