Agro-export activity in the region will not be able to compete with efficient producers in Asia if they do not generate more added value and industrialize production processes.

More productivity is what producers and exporters in the Agricultural Sector in Central America need to achieve if they want the competitiveness of their products to be not only maintained, but increased.

Agricultural production in Nicaragua is one example. “… Of the 16 products that Nicaragua exported to China in 2013, five of these, which contributed to 75 percent of revenues, came from this country in its primary state, according to the study: Latin America and the Caribbean and China, towards a new era of economic cooperation, recently published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). ”

The president of the Association of Producers and Exporters of Nicaragua (APEN), Enrique Zamora, “… sees an urgent need for this sector to promote products with a degree of added value. ‘We have several free trade agreements that have not been exploited and are an opportunity to position ourselves in new markets. This is why we also talked with industry and producers in order to get into the topic in depth.'”

In the view of Sonia Somarriba, head of markets and international relations at APEN, “… there are many factors involved, including productivity, innovation, infrastructure, logistics and training of human resources … He said in an article on Elnuevodiario.com.ni ‘Added to these are trade facilitation, clear rules, association, access to competitive raw materials in a competitive and permanent manner, the issue of packaging and labeling, on which we depend in the most part, on imports.'”

Source: laprensa.com.ni