Browse Data and Analysis

The Ministry of Health issued three updates this year: a) Presidential Decree 53-2022 establishes new fees for services as of March 1, 2022 b) Technical Norm 001-2022 provides regulations for food supplements, and c) Communication dated June 1, 2022 establishes guidance for sampling processed food products in Guatemala as part of the routine surveillance.

This report contains the list of all the mandatory export certificates required by the Government of Guatemala for agricultural imports. This report has no changes from its 2021 version.

Supermarkets, hypermarkets, and independent food stores, continue expanding in Guatemala; imports of U.S. consumer-oriented products have continued to grow and in 2021, the value of these products reported a record year of $637 million.

Guatemala maintains its 305,000 Ha of coffee, but harvested area is slightly reduced due to higher production costs, both inputs and labor. Production costs raised 32 percent as fertilizer prices continue doubling and migration is negatively impacting labor availability.

Post revised its Marketing Year 2021/2022 (MY21/22) estimates of the Cambodia rice harvested area and production at 3,335 thousand hectares (THA) and 9.61 million metric tons (MMT), higher than the USDA official numbers.

Guatemala continues to be a net importer of both yellow corn and rice. Corn area and production in MY2022/2023 are forecast to shrink one percent as some commercial farmers have decided not to plant corn given record high increases of more than 100 percent in fertilizer costs (mainly urea) and a nearly 90 percent increase in oil prices.

In marketing year 2022/2023, Guatemala is forecast to produce 2.6 million metric tons of sugar from sugarcane from a harvested area of 258,000 hectares.

Guatemala is one of the top food processing countries in Central America; meats and bakery and dairy products continue to lead the domestic food processing sector. U.S. suppliers have good opportunities to export bulk, intermediate, and consumer-oriented products that can be used as ingredients for further processing.

This report provides information on the food and agricultural import regulations and standards in Cambodia. Cambodia is a growing market for U.S. agricultural exports, with exports valued at over $72 million in 2020.

The Guatemalan economy relies on foreign exchange generated by international trade, remittances, and the tourism sector. Guatemala represents a growing market for U.S. companies and is a country with relative economic stability.

On January 29, 2021, the Court of Constitution dismissed an opposition lawsuit filed back in 2020 against the biosafety technical regulation approved on October 1, 2019 by the Ministry of Economy as part of the regulatory harmonization process with Honduras.

Post maintains its estimates for marketing year 2020/2021 (MY20/21) paddy area and production at 3,265 thousand hectares (THA) and 9.48 million metric tons (MMT). Despite reported droughts and floods in some parts of the country, industry sources expect higher production of the MY21/22 main wet season crop.