Ideavelop is a Costa Rican consultancy agency, specialized in business development in international agriculture with a focus on the European and the Latin American market. Ideavelop has Dutch management enabling the company to play its role as a European – Latin American bridge.

In March 2005, the Royal Dutch Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica has requested Ideavelop to elaborate a market survey on the opportunities for Dutch investors, importers and exporters in the sectors fruits, vegetables and ornamentals (in this report summarized as ‘agriculture’) in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama (defined in this report as ‘Central America’). The study has been elaborated in cooperation with the Royal Dutch Embassies of Guatemala and Nicaragua and the Dutch Agency for International Business and Cooperation (EVD).

This survey meant to be a first introduction to Central America as an agricultural region and potential market. The six countries are described throughout the report and are not listed one by one. Each chapter starts with an introduction, the description of the six countries and ends with a paragraph on the Region Central America. Focus has been given to issues on a macro and on a meso level. Specific details have been left out (micro level).

The complexity of describing three sectors (and in some cases its sub sectors) for six countries, has forced us to choose an approach which can not be compared with other sector studies. We have developed the Business Ideavelopment Charts (chapter 4) and we have included scenarios of possible future projects to be set up or actions to be taken by national and regional governments and organizations to stimulate competitiveness of a sector, a country or the region as a whole. 

The first chapter describes general aspects related to the six countries on a country level and on an agricultural sector level as far as relevant institutions are involved (Ministries, Trade Promotion Organizations).

The second chapter describes the actual fruit, vegetable and ornamental sector using a more quantitative approach. Besides that, a summary will be given of products and services available in each country for the mentioned sectors.

Chapter 3 will be a summary of the desk research performed in Chapters 1 and 2 and the field research realised in each separate country. This field research has been based on standard interviews making results comparable. We have defined 17 key aspects which can be regarded for Dutch (agricultural) companies of great importance in their decision to initiate imports, export activities or investments with one of the described countries. It should be mentioned that these key aspects are often defined by various parameters and therefore, the average which is used in this report for the key aspect does not always reflect each parameter and the complete justification will have to be taken into account. The selection of 17 key aspects and it parameters should be regarded as a compromise between the readability of the report on one hand and the level of detail of the information given in this report on the other.

The fourth chapter contains our Business Ideavelopment Chart (BIC), a new approach to define the business proposition of a sector in a specific country in a Central American perspective. The BIC is developed by Ideavelop to visualize the current position of a product(group) in a country. The BIC is meant to help companies being part of the Dutch target groups to have a better understanding on their opportunities in the specific sector. Chapter four also contains a summary of all opportunities which can be defined for selected groups of exporters and services as well as for investors and importers in mentions product(groups). This same selection for exporters can be found in Chapter 2 (actual availability of products and services).
The final chapter, chapter 5, describes future scenarios for products, countries and the region Central America. These scenarios are the final result of the four previous chapters combined with trends in the international agricultural world. These scenarios are meant to be discussed and criticized and can not be regarded as blue prints for future projects. The authors of this report hope to achieve that these scenarios can work as a trigger for companies, institutes and government representatives to develop new ideas in a region which deserves more international attention from especially the international agricultural sector.

If you are interested in doing business in a certain country we suggest you to start reading chapter 1 and 2 to get a general idea of the country and its contribution to the agricultural sector in Central America. If you are interested in certain product or sector we suggest you to start reading chapters 2 and 4 where you can identify in which country you will find production of this specific product and the what current situation of this product or sector looks like. 

We have aimed to use sources of information that provide information for all countries described in this study. Although the information has been reviewed with utmost care we can not take responsibility for the reliability of the data.

First of all, we would like to thank the Royal Dutch Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica, represented by Mr. Lambert Grijns, to give us the opportunity to put more international emphasis on a region which due to its geographical orientation will most likely play an even more significant role in worldwide agriculture. We also would like to thank our project assistants Edwin van der Maden, Linda van Alem and Graciela Vidal for their appreciated assistance.

Finally, we would like to thank all interviewed persons for their time, efforts and hospitality to make this report a starting point in the Central American region for green opportunities with an orange touch!

 

Ideavelop S.A.
San José, 10 October 2007

 

Edwin Smit              Arno van der Maden
Director Ideas          Director Development