Browse Data and Analysis

Sugar production and exports in Honduras are expected to increase in MY 2025/26, driven by higher yields, expanded harvest areas, and greater investment.

This report highlights the food processing industry, its drivers, key players, and market landscape in the Caribbean Basin. The region relies heavily on imports, and the United States is the largest supplier of food ingredients.

The United States is a major trading partner with the Dominican Republic (DR). The DR is the largest economy in the Caribbean and the seventh-largest economy in Latin America. Since the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) went into effect for the DR in 2007, U.S. agricultural exports to the DR have increased from $1 billion in 2007 to $2 billion in 2024.

Sugar production and exports are projected slightly up in marketing year (MY) 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025) because of the increase in productivity yields, harvested area, and additional investments made in the sugar sector and increased exports.

The Caribbean Basin region has a robust and competitive hotel/restaurant/institutional (HRI) sector. Tourism is a major economic driver, accounting for nearly 9 million visitors in 2023, almost 50 percent of which arrived from the United States...

In 2023, the United States held a 29.1 percent share of the consumer-oriented food and beverage market in Honduras, a slight decrease of 1.3 percent from 2022.

Honduras has made no modifications to its existing regulatory framework regarding genetically engineered (GE) crops. As of October 2024, planted area of GE corn in Honduras has increased by 29 percent from the previous year, rising from 52,000 to 67,000 hectares. In 2024, the National Committee on Biotechnology and Biosecurity approved six events.

Access to the benefits of modern agricultural biotechnology in the Caribbean Basin remains stifled by the unfinished work of implementing a science-based, risk-management approach to regulate its use.

The National Plant, Animal Health and Food Safety Service (SENASA) is the regulatory agency in Honduras that is responsible for the inspection of all agricultural products that enter the country.

SENASA and ARSA have made significant progress in expediting import procedures with the introduction of online options for requesting import permits and sanitary authorizations of imported raw materials that provide immediate electronic delivery to ports of entry.

In the Caribbean region, sales value in the retail grocery sector increased by 3 percent in 2023. This is due in part to the rise in tourism in many markets, which is boosting economic growth. The largest grocery retail markets are Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, and the Bahamas.

In 2023, Honduras’s consumer-oriented imports from the United States reached $553 million, making it the second-largest importer in Central America, after Guatemala.