On 28 February 2022, the Australian Government confirmed Australia has market access for barley exports to Costa Rica. This does not include malt exports.
New market access, growing demand and improved business links led to an annual rise of 829% in Australian barley and malt exports to the Latin American region in 2021 (Source: ABS 2022). This included the first shipment of Australian barley to Mexico in January 2021.
Figure 1: Australia exports of barley (incl. malt) to Latin America
Implications for Australian exporters
Government and industry are working together to connect Australian exporters with Costa Rican importers.
Costa Rica barley market snapshot
Costa Rica is a small barley market. However, growth in imports since 2019 indicates demand is growing. In 2020, Costa Rica imported $54,000 of barley and $15.2 million of malt. Canada, the United States and Spain supplied all barley imports. The European Union and Argentina supplied most malt imports (Source: UNComtrade 2022).
In 2021, the value of Australian barley (including malt) exports to the world was a record $3.1 billion. This was up 182% on 2020 (Source: ABS 2022).
Figure 2: Australian barley (incl. malt) exports by value
Resources
The Manual of Importing Country Requirements has import requirements for all commodities to Costa Rica.
DFAT has additional information about Australia's relationship with Costa Rica.
