| SAN JOSE -- (AP) -- A Canadian sweet tooth could prove profitable for
Costa Rica's ailing coffee growers. President Miguel Angel Rodriguez
suggested that his country's suffering coffee growers shift to sugar for
the Canadian market.
``We managed to open a gigantic door with the free trade treaty with
Canada which will permit Costa Rica to export up to 20,000 metric tons of
sugar,'' he was quoted as telling the newspaper La Nacion on Wednesday.
He said that offered an opportunity for coffee growers who have been
suffering from low world prices for their product, even though sugar
prices, too, have been low by historic standards.
Under the treaty with Canada signed in April, Costa Rica's sugar quota
with Canada could rise to 40,000 tons within seven years, the president
said.
Costa Rican producers have been losing an average of about $5 on each
100-pound bag of coffee, according to the Agriculture Ministry. |