29 October 2002
Costa Rica
The outlook for the fishing industry of Costa Rica looks very bright and there's plenty of scope for further development, according to officials. At present, the most profitable species are tuna and tilapia. The Costa Rican tuna exports are expected to grow dramatically over the next three years to be worth US$ 100 million a year, therefore creating a great boost to the workforce and economy. According to Ligia Castro, Executive President of Cost Rica's Fishery and Aquaculture Institute (Incopesca), there are several factors attributing to these positive developments. Castro indicated that one of the important factors is the supply of raw material to the country's processing plants by foreign fleets. In 2001, foreign fleets caught 21,808 MT of tuna in Costa Rican waters. This contributed to keep the 5,000 nationals employed by the operational processing plants. Another important factor was an agreement allowing Costa Rican exporters to sell tuna to the USA with taxes of just 15%. This is the result of negotiations for a tax scheme similar to the one in the free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the USA, he said. Before these measures were taken Costa Rica was subject to a 35% tax. Tuna processing companies such as Sardimar were looking to source new markets, he added. And it's not just the fisheries sector which is benefiting from agreements with other countries, but the aquaculture industry too is set to benefit from the government's support, said Castro, Similar free trade agreements have been signed with the Dominican Republic and Canada, which are also bound to boost sales considerably.
