The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) works to improve foreign market access for U.S. products, build new markets, improve the competitive position of U.S. agriculture in the global marketplace, and provide food aid and technical assistance to foreign countries.  The San Jose office works closely with the government and private sector to identify and reduce barriers to trade.

Cochran Fellowship Program Alumni Reunion

October 9, 2012

Illeana Ramírez- FAS, Markus Mormels & Jürgen Mormels- DELIKA by Gourmet Imports, Juan Botero y Ernesto Peña- E&J Gallo Wines

Meeting in honor of Alumni Cochran Fellowship Program hosted October 9th at the InterContinental Real Hotel.
It was an opportunity to exchange experiences of recent years with former fellows of Cochran.
This program is a good example of how to improve local agricultural systems and strengthen and improve commercial ties with United States.  Programs under different topics such as: biotechnology, food safety in food, agricultural statistics, postharvest, among others.

CATIE EC LEDS

August 7-8, 2012

Kelly Stange, FAS Agricultural Attaché

The Costa Rican livestock sector is a major emitter of greenhouse gases, as such the Government of Costa Rica and the private sector are interested in promoting technologies, policies and market instruments that lead to the development of economically viable, low emitting carbon farming systems and contribute to the goal of Costa Rica being carbon neutral by 2021. As part of improving these capacities and developing strategies for low-carbon (EC-LEDS), USDA in collaboration with CATIE agreed that a workshop should occur between both public and private stakeholders (in conjunction with USDA experts) engaged in the production of milk and beef cattle. The objectives of the workshop are to share information / best low-carbon practices on cattle farms, develop an inventory of projects and programs, solicit feedback on the needs, knowledge gaps, or key questions relating to reducing emissions in the country, and finally to minimize emissions through the entire production chain.

Field trip to the south of Costa Rica

January 30 - February 1, 2012

Field trip to South of Costa Rica

From Jan 30-Feb 1, 2012, FAS visited the major agricultural industries in the south of Costa Rica. FAS met with companies producing sugar cane, coffee, African palm, rice, vegetable and pineapple and toured the production sites on the Pacific Coast and near San Isidro and Buenos Aires.

CODEX Latin America SPS Workshop

Costa Rica - January 23-26, 2012

CODEX Workshop Group Photo

FAS worked with FDA to organize the CODEX SPS Workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica January 23-26, 2012. CODEX representatives from Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Belize, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, and the United States participated.  The objective was to gain consensus on issues related to food safety and sanitary-phytosanitary concerns.

15th Americas Food and Beverage Trade Show & Conference

Miami - November 14-15, 2011

U.S. Pavilion at Americas Food and Beverage Show

The 15th Americas Food and Beverage Trade Show & Conference offered foreign buyers the opportunity to meet more than 400 exhibitors from around the world in one venue during two days of exhibits and conferences in Miami Beach, Florida.
Buyers covered Latin America, Central America, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the United States in just two days.
In addition to the business opportunities, the Americas Food and Beverage Show featured newly designed product-specific pavilions, tastings, seminars, and one-on-one pre-scheduled meetings.
FAS San José led a delegation formed by approximately 65 buyers who plan to import food products from the United States.

Expo Vinos 2011

San Jose - October 26-28, 2011

US Dairy Export Council representative, Verónica Ozaeta and FAS Marketing Specialist, Illeana Ramírez at ExpoVinos 2011

FAS Costa Rica helped to organize a U.S. pavilion in Expovino featuring a variety of wines from the United States at the Intercontinental hotel from October 26-28.  This activity supports efforts of U.S. cooperators, and U.S. food and beverage exporters in marketing their products.  FAS San José has participated twice in this show with great success and has supported  Costa Rican importers of U.S. wines, as well as U.S. wine exporters exhibiting at the show.  This activity helps educate Costa Rican wine consumers about the high quality and variety of U.S. wines, which compete with high quality and low cost wines from Chile, Argentina and other wine producing countries from around the world.

EMP-TIRF-Funded Fumigation Training To Facilitate Trade Between the United States and Central America

San Jose - September 19-23, 2011

Several fumigation technicians practicing fumigation techniques

The overall objective of this activity was to train fumigation technicians from Central America and the Dominican Republic on better fumigation practices and techniques, thus improving market access for U.S. high value fruits and vegetables, while reducing U.S. agricultural commodity looses from the lack of or improper fumigations at the ports in Central America.
APHIS instructors Veronica Zabala and Tim Bergstrom provided the training in Spanish. The Costa Rican Ministry of Agriculture and OIRSA supported the event. MAG sent 22 participants and OIRSA brought 20 technicians to Costa Rica to participate.

Food & Wine Tasting

San Jose - February 17, 2011

Sommelier Christian Chaves demostrates to Ambassador Anne Andrew and Agricutural Counselor some of the California Wines

National importers of Califonia wine and members of he California Wine Institute joined in a special presentation of their products and how best to combine them with different foods imported from the United States such as meats, cheese, duck, sausages and others, in order to make them known to the public, hotels and restaurants.

We had the participation of the Ambassador of the United States, Anne S. Andrew, and of the chefs David and Kristen Tallent of Bloomington, Indiana, owners of Tallent Restaurant who where responsible for the preparation of the foods which were combined with the respective wines.

Western Hemisphere FAS Regional Conference

September 20-25, 2010

Western Hemisphere FAS Regional Conference

Herradura, Costa Rica

FAS Costa Rica hosted the Western Hemisphere FAS Regional Conference. The event was opened by Ambassador Anne Andrew and General Sales Manager Janet Nuzum. Various agencies out of Washington,DC, FSOs, FSNs, and Cooperators met to collaborate on the National Export Initiative, Food Security and other relevant issue