Costa Rica's Dos Pinos
Aims to Expand in
Central America
Dos Pinos, the Costa
Rican dairy co-op,
intends to take
advantage of high powder
milk prices, which have
peaked at around
us$5,000 per tonne
mid-2007, up from
us$1,998 per tonne in
January 2003. Although
prices have fallen from
their peak level, they
have remained above the
us$4,500 mark.
Dos Pinos has already
invested us$12.5 million
in Guatemala, where it
currently sells 80,000
litres of Costa Rican
milk a day. The group
now plans to strike
deals with local
producers.
The cooperative recently
acquired a 51% stake in
a dairy plant owned by
Cooprolac in Panama and
aims to capture a 25%
share of that country’s
market by 2013. Dos
Pinos’s investments in
Panama are currently
worth an estimated $2.5
million.
Finally, the Costa Rican
company has earmarked
between us$5 and us$6
million for a new
factory in Nicaragua.
If Dos Pinos's
investment drive goes as
planned, the cooperative
should achieve the
largest distribution
network in Central
America, with over
26,000 businesses.
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