LONDON: Costa Rica’s exports in January remained $725.6 million, with an increase of 2.9 percent as compared with the same month last year.
Costa Rica’s medical device industry started this year strong, with a 54 percent growth in exports over last year, according to a report from the Foreign Trade Promotion Office. That places these products at the top of goods exported by Costa Rica so far in 2015.
The country exported $97.3 million worth of medical devices in January 2014, while the figure reached $149.9 million in January 2015.
Foreign Trade Vice Minister John Fonseca Ordóñez said the closure of Intel’s chip assembly plant last year generated a harsh impact on the country’s exports. However, “the sustained growth in sales, mostly of medical devices but also in other sectors, is offsetting the negative numbers,” he said.
Other export products that showed strong growth in January were melons, with 51.8 percent growth, green coffee with 47.7 percent growth, beef with 39.8 percent growth and ornamental plants with 6.2 percent growth.