According to statistics from the Dirección General de Aduanas (General Directorate of Customs) and compiled by the Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (Icafe), for the 2018-2019 cycle in the Costa Rican market were consumed about 526,000 bags of 46 kgs of coffee, of which slightly over half (292,000) were of national production and 234,000 were purchased abroad.
Xinia Chaves, Executive Director of Icafé, told Nacion.com that “… the sector must promote greater production to provide raw material to local roasters, as there is a correlation between increased imports and the fall in the national grain harvest.”
According to the Encuesta Nacional Agropecuaria (ENA) – National Agricultural Survey, between 2017 and 2018 the area used to grow coffee decreased 4%, from 90,725 hectares to 86,764 hectares.
Regarding the rules for importing coffee beans, Chaves added that “… there is a need to put the same conditions and requirements for local and foreign supply. For that reason, the modification to the law is processed to give obligatory condition to the analyses where the properties of the great of other origins are identified.”