Costa Rica imported $66.4 million in dairy products from the United States in the first eight months of 2026, nearly four times the $17.5 million recorded in the same period of 2020, according to figures from the foreign trade promotion agency Procomer. US products accounted for 65.2% of the country’s $101.8 million in dairy imports through August, which arrived from 37 countries.
In the same period of 2020, total dairy imports came to $36.6 million. Imports from the European Union reached $14.9 million this year, up 15.4% from the same period of 2025. Two changes opened the door. Since Jan. 1, 2025, US dairy products have entered Costa Rica duty-free, after the tariff phase-out under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) concluded.
Beginning in May 2025, the government also sped up the approval of US dairy plants at Washington’s request, once sanitary requirements were met, under a resolution issued by the National Animal Health Service (Senasa) on April 10, 2025. The effect on approvals has been steep. Senasa’s registry listed 259 authorized US dairy plants as of Oct. 21, up from 43 in January.
The shift is also visible in product registrations. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 30, the Ministry of Health’s Regístrelo platform listed 208 cheese products of US origin, compared with 178 from Costa Rica, 49 from Italy and seven from France. Byron Gurdian, head of epidemiological surveillance and animal health at Senasa, said every foreign establishment that exports animal products to Costa Rica must be controlled by the agency.
He said how long an approval remains valid depends on whether the exporting country has a free trade agreement with Costa Rica. Plants from countries without one must renew their approval every three years. Foreign trade specialist Álvaro Monge said the United States, the United Kingdom and European Union members have equivalence agreements under which Costa Rica recognizes their health inspection systems.
Plants from other countries must complete questionnaires reviewed by Senasa and may face on-site visits, a process that can take months or years. Monge said the agency gives priority to scientific criteria over commercial ones. Local producers see the trend differently. Ivannia Quesada, president of the National Chamber of Milk Producers, said the rise in plant authorizations coincided with the rise in imports.
She said foreign plants are subject to different controls than Costa Rica’s own dairy industry, and that the government has known about the producers’ concerns since 2025 but gave the chamber an unsatisfactory response. Quesada also attributed the growth in imports to the strength of the colón against the dollar, which has squeezed local producers and made foreign goods cheaper, and to the displacement of dairy-farming families from the business.
According to Quesada, authorities told the chamber that the approvals met international standards. Cooperativa Dos Pinos is itself among the importers. Marina Rodríguez, the cooperative’s corporate director of sustainability and corporate relations, said Dos Pinos brings in US mozzarella and parmesan under its own brand and distributes them in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
Rodríguez said more competition is a normal result of globalization and trade agreements, and that the cooperative sees it as a challenge. She said Dos Pinos processes 1.4 million liters (370,000 gallons) of Costa Rican milk a day and pays out nearly ₡500 million ($1.1 million) daily to about 1,300 member producers.
Consumer advocates welcomed the change. Erick Ulate, executive director of the Free Consumers Association, said the plant approvals are routine work by Senasa and its foreign counterparts and ensure that imports meet quality and safety standards. He said the result is a wider variety of products at better prices.
The figures come days after the government dropped its bid to join a Pacific trade pact. Washington has also pressed for wider access to the Costa Rican market for US farm products. With the tariff phase-out complete, each of the 259 approved US plants can now ship dairy products to Costa Rica duty-free.
