Costa Rica Introduces Natural and Exotic Products during 2016 Summer Fancy Food Show

NEW YORK, June 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Costa Rican food companies are showcasing the country's diverse selection of organic snacks, premium roasted coffee, chocolate, and specialty food products when they attend the 2016 Fancy Food Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC on June 26-28.

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In addition, Essential Costa Rica is inviting the media to sample products during a breakfast tasting before the conference starts on Monday, June 27th. The Fancy Food Show is North America's largest specialty food and beverage event, showcasing over 180,000 products including confections, cheese, coffee, snacks, spices, ethnic, natural, and organic.

Thanks to its rich volcanic soils and incredibly diverse microclimates that offer a wide range of production options, Costa Rica has made agribusiness a major part of its economy. Costa Rica has become an export leader within Central and South America with shipments from the country estimated at $9.7 billion in 2015. In 2015, food industry exports from Costa Rica rose to $1.48 billion, up from 2014.

More than 70 years of experience mixed with know-how, innovation, and best practices have provided the foundation of the Costa Rican food industry to sell specialties throughout the world. Currently, almost 350 different agricultural and food-processed goods are exported to more than 91 countries worldwide including Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United States, China, and Japan.

"The Fancy Food Show gives us a great platform in which to show the U.S. food industry the natural, authentic flavors and diverse products that are available from Costa Rica," said Maykool Lopez, Trade Commissioner & Director of the New York Office of PROCOMER, Costa Rica's Export Promotion Agency. "Not only is Costa Rica the world's largest exporter of pineapples and third-largest exporter of bananas, but they're also the third-largest exporter of hearts of palm, yucca root, yams, and taro. These exports have grown with the global market demand for these specialty and ethnic foods."

Costa Rican companies featuring products at the Fancy Food Show include:

• Montana Azul produces a variety of products including canned fruit, yucca root, gluten-free options like canned heart of palms, and roasted coffee that is sourced by Starbucks. The company's products have won a SIAL Innovation Award and were recently selected to be a part of PLMA's Idea Supermarket, a special exhibit on innovation within private labels at the PLMA Trade Show in Amsterdam.
• CRCX is made up of 2,300 small Costa Rican coffee farmers and 5,000 families to create roasted coffee in different varieties including shade grown, organic, and traditional sun-dried beans.
• Natural Sins, a sofi Awards finalist from the Specialty Food Association, produces natural, crunchy fruit and beet chips made with just two ingredients for full flavor. Their crispy pineapple chips utilize the whole pineapple (core, rind, and all) in production, which becomes the un-potato chip when sliced down to the millimeter and slowly roasted.
• Created in combination by a mother and nutritionist, Nutrisnacks creates snack foods, including mini bagels and cookies, for children that are low in sugar, fat, and sodium while being high in fiber.
• Berra Bites combines the highest quality of chocolate and fruit to make a delicious chocolate snack free of preservatives and additives. In order to maintain the freshest and most natural flavor, Berra Bites harvests the fruit only right before the production of the chocolate covered strawberry bites.

"We're hoping to educate people on not only the various products that Costa Rica exports but also about the brand Essential Costa Rica, which shows the values of the country," said Lopez. "These values are demonstrated in every product through a very formal evaluation process to assure Innovation, Social Progress, Excellence, Sustainability, and Origin."

"Essential Costa Rica reflects the essence of what we are: one small country, people focused and full of talent, expertise warmth, innnovation, and entrepreneurial spirit," continues Lopez. "This differentiates our food industry from the rest of the world and really showcases what Costa Rica has to offer."

To RSVP for the breakfast on Monday, June 27th, please email Lacey Beattie at lacey@conway.com.

PROCOMER: The Export Promotion Agency of Costa Rica

PROCOMER is in charge of promoting the exportation of Costa Rican goods and services throughout the world, to assist in the development of Costa Rica and its country brand Essential Costa Rica. The agency was created in 1996 to simplify and facilitate the exportation procedures, generate exportation chains, register exportation statistics of goods, and perform market studies. Its mission is to promote commerce and investment abroad with an eye towards being the strategic benchmark for the private business sector for foreign commerce and investment.

Media Contact: Lacey Beattie, Conway PR & Marketing, 304-942-2453, lacey@conway.com

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SOURCE PROCOMER