Long-term growth for Latin American and Caribbean farms
07 July 1998
Long-term growth for Latin American and Caribbean farms
LATIN-AMERICAN and Caribbean agriculture is growing faster than any other sector, according to a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac).
Agriculture, forestry and fishing in the region has grown 8.5% over the last three decades. The growth rate in the 1990s has been 3%.
Oil products and sugar cane have been the most dynamic in the 1990s. Fruit and vegetable production, especially in Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala and Mexico have also been dynamic. Brazil, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela, have been most active in vegetable production.
But the output of cereals has been depressed by the modest performance of main producers and stagnation in Argentina. Coffee, tuber and root vegetable production has also not developed too well.
New crops have enabled the region to escape adverse effects from structural adjustments to its economies, says the report, entitled Survey of Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean over Recent Decades, Eclac, Caribbean, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
- Financial Times 07/07/98 page 34