Costa Rica's National Rice Corporation will provide material assistance to growers

Costa Rica's El País reported on April 22 that the "Rice Road" plan promised to reduce rice prices for consumers. The plan includes two measures: the first is to significantly reduce rice import tariffs, from 35% to 3.5% for brown rice and from 35% to 4% for polished rice; the second is to abolish the producer and consumer joint pricing system and replace it with a free market model. Conarroz said that after the implementation of the "Rice Road" plan, many rice farmers were forced to stop producing rice due to the uncertainty brought about by the deregulation of rice prices and the reduction of tariffs in the past 20 months. Conarroz Executive Director Fernando Araya (Fernando Araya) Araya recalled that at the end of 2023, Conarroz started the due process of applying for the aid project through the Integrated Public Procurement System (SICOP) platform; it was not until early April 2024 that SICOP reported that the project was approved by the Office of the Comptroller General of ...