Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, in the previous March, the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) attended more than 60 thousand various export procedures. These included the issuance of more than 82 thousand phytosanitary export certificates.
Likewise, the SFE enabled a virtual system so that destination countries could verify the authenticity of phytosanitary certificates, which could be processed with copies of documents or their digital versions, to overcome the logistical inconveniences imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Supported within the framework of international phytosanitary protection standards, steps are about to be completed to implement the ‘e-phyto’ or electronic export certificate bilaterally with Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the United States, New Zealand and the European Union”, explained Fernando Araya, executive director of the SFE.
New markets for Costa Rican products
In addition, regarding the efforts to open new markets for Costa Rican products, we can already export stolons of grass to Honduras, mini petunia seeds to Peru; and significant progress was made in other processes that are still under management, such as chayote for Chile, melon for China, and pineapple for Israel. Regarding imports, during 2020 the entry of more than 10,000 shipments was approved.
