IICA supports strategy to promote value added in Costa Rican agriculture

San José, Costa Rica, 23 January 2015 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is assisting Costa Rica’s National Production Council (CNP) with the construction of a strategy designed to boost value added in the agricultural sector and thereby enhance the competitiveness of family agriculture.

The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica, Luis Felipe Arauz, CNP Executive President Carlos Monge and members of his staff, and IICA specialists held their first meeting to discuss the construction of the strategy, based on a draft prepared by the Institute’s Office in Costa Rica.

The proposal includes the creation of the Centro Nacional de Promoción al Valor Agregado Agropecuario (CNPVAA). At a meeting involving the MAG, the CNP, the Secretaría Ejecutiva de Planeación Sectorial Agropecuaria (SEPSA) and IICA, held in San Jose, the participants focused on the services that the center would offer.

“When producers shift their focus from value added to primary production, the impact is significant. Our task is to assist producers who lack the expertise needed to improve their economic activity in areas such as management, marketing, and trade,” Minister Arauz observed.

CNP Executive President Carlos Monge noted that one of the key tasks facing the sector was the revamping of the structure of production and support for producers who supply the domestic market, without ignoring export agriculture.

The meeting was part of the support that IICA has been lending to the process of modernizing the CNP since 2014, with a view to strengthening the competitiveness and productivity of Costa Rica’s small-scale agriculture.

“We want to help build a strong institution with a long-term vision, one that is innovative, dynamic, and capable of improving the quality of life and the development of producers and their territories,” commented IICA’s Representative in Costa Rica, Miguel Ángel Arvelo.

IICA’s collaboration in the modernization of the CNP has included involvement in more than 12 workshops and meetings, the delivery of consulting and advisory services, as well as support for the strengthening of the Fábrica Nacional de Licores (FANAL) and the Programa de Abastecimiento Institucional (PAI). The Institute has also promoted the sharing of experiences, organizing activities such as the one carried out with Brazil’s Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB) last November.

More information: 
miguel.arvelo@iica.int