Costa Rica Showcases
Flavors, Textures At
U.S. ‘Fancy Food Show’
Guanacaste Journal -
Early this month, Costa
Rica took center stage
at the U.S. Fancy Food
Show to present some of
its novelty products to
international buyers.
Among the products
features were fresh,
vacuum-sealed heart of
palm and coffee-flavored
cereal. The Summer Fancy
Food Show takes places
in New York and is an
international window for
promoting food companies
and products from some
80 countries around the
world, with nearly 2,400
exhibitors and more than
25,000 registered
buyers.
Alvaro Piedra,
international marketing
manager for the Costa
Rican Foreign Trade
Promoter (Procomer),
explained that the Fancy
Food Show was chosen as
a tool to position Costa
Rica’s image in the
United States.
“We made more than 370
contacts during the
fair, thus increasing
the chances that
businesses in the Costa
Rican food industry will
be able to formalize
international deals in
the coming days,” Piedra
said.
Local exporters
populated an area
dedicated to Costa Rican
products, under the
coordination of Procomer,
and focused on a
strategy to diversify
the markets for Tico
foods in the United
States.
Other high-quality
products that were
promoted included canned
pineapple, frozen
cassava biscuits,
cheese-filled fried
plantain, nutritional
cookies and snacks,
macadamia and peanut
candies, salsas,
marmalades, spices,
seasonings, gourmet
tuna, teas and herbal
infusions, coffee
liquor, coffee cream,
gourmet coffee, rum, and
fruit and vegetable
purees.
On the occasion of the
food fair, Foreign Trade
Minister Marco Vinicio
Ruiz spoke about Costa
Rica’s achievements on
trade policy, the
performance of the food
industry in terms of
exports, and the actions
being promoted by the
Executive Branch to
improve competitiveness
of the local economy in
general and the
agribusiness sector in
particular.
Ruiz highlighted that
two recent studies from
prestigious
international entities
have rated the country
in a privileged
commercial position at
the Latin American
level.
The Minister also listed
the main initiatives
implemented by the
government to contribute
to the competitiveness
of the food industry in
the areas of tariffs for
raw materials; regional
integration; export
promotion programs
targeted at Central
America, Panama and the
Caribbean; and approval
of a free trade
agreement with Panama,
which will go into
effect in the next few
days.
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