Costa Rica’s food industry starts the year with participation in Specialty Food Live virtual trade show

San José, January 22, 2021. With the objective of consolidating Costa Rica’s presence in the North American market and positioning Costa Rican export products as an alternative for healthy, natural, and high value-added food; 14 companies from the food sector are participating in the virtual fair Specialty Food Live!2021. The event takes place from January 19 to 22 and is organized by Specialty Food Association, a benchmark in the specialty food industry in the United States. This entity brings together suppliers, importers, food industry entrepreneurs, distributors, retailers, among others, and is known for its role as organizer of the Fancy Food Show events.

As the United States is Costa Rica’s main trading partner, the Foreign Trade Promotion Agency (PROCOMER, for its acronym in Spanish) recruited differentiated, natural, gourmet and specialized food companies to represent the country in this important trade platform. The participating firms are: Natural Sins, Paradise Ingredients, Industrias Mafam, Alimentos Cook, Montaña Azul, Roma Prince, Productos Agropecuarios Visa, Todo Natural, Sweetwell, Nahua Cacao & Chocolate, Tertulia Brugge, Vidal Brothers Company, Laica and Alimentos Prosalud.

The products to be promoted during the fair are natural chips and fruit, vegetable and tuber flours; cocktail mixers and retail beverages; granolas, healthy snacks, natural cereals, coffee flakes, cereal bars and seeds; canned pineapple; cassava and hearts of palm in canned or glass presentations; prepared pastas and sauces; dehydrated pineapple snacks; keto and sugar-free snacks such as sugar sighs, cookies, chocolates and bars; cocoa and by-products such as nibs, powdered and handmade chocolates; roasted coffee and coffee beans; caramelized, brown, raw, natuvia sugar and powdered beverages; and canned and glass canned tuna.

“If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that technology and virtuality are allies for business generation. That is why this year we are launching this first virtual fair, during which we hope to generate new opportunities that will help our export sector to continue recovering from the crisis,” said Álvaro Piedra, PROCOMER’s Director of Exports.

Specialty Food Live, being a virtual format, enables Costa Rican companies to have a business profile where they present their company and products through photographs, videos, and catalogs. This profile, in turn, is linked to the Costa Rica Country Pavilion where, together with the country brand Esencial Costa Rica, a showroom was created with products where the main characteristics of the exportable offer can be presented, as well as the forms or information that allows them to materialize business opportunities.

The platform will be available 24/7, and Costa Rican participation will be during the hours established by the fair from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (Costa Rican time) to attend virtual interaction with buyers through chats, emails, and virtual meetings.

“On behalf of PAYA Coffee we are incredibly happy to belong to the Specialty Food Association, it is an honor to be one of the coffee brands that proudly represents Costa Rica within the organization, in the current fair and in the next ones we participate. Specialty Food Live! 2021 has been a new experience, it is our first fair as members of the association and it has been a good source to contact potential clients with whom we can connect internationally, in order to export our product. This edition has been managed through a platform that has really been quite friendly and has helped us to create certain connections with supermarket chains in the United States, mainly, we hope to continue and close negotiations with these potential customers and get our product to the shelves in the U.S. as soon as possible. Of course, we must thank not only the association for this edition, but also PROCOMER for helping us achieve this goal and continue innovating with us”, commented Santiago Vidal, General Manager of Vidal Brothers Company.

Fredy Marín, Business Manager of Cook Foods, added that “participating in this type of events and particularly in Specialty Food Live! 2021, allows us to interact in an agile and direct way with potential buyers and decision makers. This platform adjusts to the exchange of information in real time, which has allowed us this week to have immediate contacts of great interest to develop them and achieve a commercial relationship in the short term”.

In the cumulative interval from January – November 2020, the food industry represented 14% of the country’s total exports of goods and showed a growth of 7% in relation to the same period of 2019. Products such as palm oil, syrups for beverages, canned fish, fruit juices and concentrates and fine bakery products; had a positive variation in the mentioned period.