Browse Data and Analysis

The Caribbean Basin region continues to experience growth, driven primarily by the steady rise in tourism, which in turn impacts consumer demand.

This report offers U.S. exporters of agricultural and related products valuable insights on conducting business in Panama. In 2024, exports of U.S. agricultural and related products to Panama reached approximately $942.6 million.

Changes to Panama's import requirements reflected in this report are for pork, dairy products, seafood and rice. A new law establishes the inspections and food safety regulations for food products.

Panama recognizes the certificates and standards of the U.S. regulatory and sanitary inspection system, based on the United States – Panama Agreement regarding certain Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures and Technical Standards affecting Trade in Agricultural products, of December 20, 2006, simplifying requirements for the importation of U.S. food and feed products. Panama accepts electronic certificates.

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.

This report provides information to U.S. exporters of agricultural and related products on how to do business with the Food Processing industry in Panama. It is primarily a service – based economy, but food processing is one of its top industries.

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.

On January 14, 2025, the Panamanian Food Agency (APA) and the Ministry of Health of Panama confirmed that the dairy plants registration process has been significantly expedited, resolving a trade barrier created on July 17, 2023.

Although Panama highlighted the use of biotechnology in its Agricultural State Policy Law 352 of 2023, Panama has not yet established the implementing regulations of Law 48 of 2002, which created the National Commission of Biosafety for Genetically Modified Organisms.

This report outlines how U.S. food and agriculture exporters engage with the hotel, restaurant, and institutional (HRI) sector in Panama. This sector plays a vital role in Panama's economy and is driven by international tourism.

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...

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.