Nontraditional agricultural export strategy

The strategy included credit, production marketing, and management improvement projects. The NTAE strategy has been successful. Start-up goals for export sales and employment generation have been achieved and expectations for the future are good. Principal NTAE products exported to date have been ornamental cut flowers, strawberries, melons, pineapples, asparagus, and root crops (yucca and malanga) aimed at ethnic markets in North America. The strategy has had measurable impact on export sales, which should reach $18.8 million by 1990. These projections are reasonably conservative, and do not include the likely impacts of several new initiatives such as tropical fruit products, processed tomatoes, raspberries, and blackberries, or most importantly, the drive for foreign investment in NTAE. Nor do they include benefits that may accrue from related programs of the Costa Rican government. In addition, the strategy has directly generated some 1,500 jobs, and has probably also had significant indirect impact on employment through nondirected lines of credit and various macroeconomic government policies stimulated by USAID/CR. The full impact of certain NTAE products will not be felt until after 1994. An example is macadamia, which takes 9 years to reach maturity. Export sales of this crop are estimated at $60 million by 1998, when all macadamia products will have reached full maturity. The Northern Zone Consolidation Project expects over 13,000 ha to be planted in NTAE products with direct and indirect USAID/CR assistance, and these should generate another $40 million in annual export sales at full maturity. The projects involved in the strategy have benefited from effective implementing organizations, reflecting the unusually high quality of the personnel involved and the good judgment of their managers. Key problems facing the expansion of NTAE from Costa Rica are in the areas of transport, chemical residues, postharvest handling and processing, export marketing management, and credit. Social equity has not been a problem, with small and medium producers receiving the majority of the assistance. Recommendations address the above problems. (Author abstract, modified)