Intel's exit from Costa Rica last year continues to be the main factor causing negative growth of export products. Exports of services, however, grew for the fourth consecutive year.
Promotion strategies in recent months are attracting Chilean buyers of healthy, zero-calorie, gluten-free, organic and environmentally friendly Tico products, according to Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER).
Many people in Costa Rica's rural areas still use heavy, wood-burning stoves. But they're now becoming a luxury item for preparing meals on special occasions, as well as a collector's item for vintage decoration.
Costa Rica's third country organic accreditation with EU countries allowed local organic producers to send coffee for the first time to Estonia last year, while pineapple producers sold for the first time to France and Switzerland.
Prior to the project’s approval by the Legislative Assembly in February various professional and business groups warned that changes to the project would be needed and that those changes would inflate the price tag.
Exports of all goods from the country dropped from $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2014 to $2.3 billion this year, according to the latest report. The exit of technology giant Intel still is the main factor negatively affecting export figures.
Medical devices now lead national exports and showed a considerable 49.5 percent growth in the first two months of 2015 compared to the same time period last year.
