This “Hill of Beans” is Important for Nicaragua

The numbers are quite staggering and they confirm that small red beans are, and will continue to be, a staple food for most Nicaraguans.

The harvest from the first planting of beans is estimated to be over 1.5 million quintals, that’s 1.5 million x 100 pound sacks of beans!

Isidro Rivera, the Vice Minister of Agriculture was reporting this Tuesday on Nicaragua’s first bean crop of 2021. He said that 69,000 producers will be harvesting their crops from what expert calculations show as 115,000 manzanas (over 200,000 acres) which had been planted for this cycle. That’s 80,500 hectares or 805 square kilometers! (almost 311 square miles).

A Nicaraguan manzana (they do vary from country to country) is 1.73 acres.

Annual consumption in Nicaragua is about 2.5 million quintals and producers are hoping for almost 5 million quintals this year in total production which allows for almost a 50/50 split in domestic use and exports.

So far this year, Nicaragua has exported 1.128 million quintals of beans, according to figures from CETREX, the Export Procedures Center that provides services to the export sector.

Rivera explained that over the last 5 years, the planting area has increased by 20% and in addition, new seed types are being used which can cope with different types of soil and humidity. He added that at the end of this month of August as well as into September there will be a good supply of beans in the markets and also available for export.

Prices quoted by Bolsa Agroindustrial Upanic (BOLSAGRO) for August 23rd 2021 at the Oriental Market in Managua were 1,400 Córdobas for a quintal (100 pounds) of red beans.

The most popular small red bean (as they are generally described) grown in Nicaragua is the variety Phaseolus vulgaris L. When the pods are dry it’s time for the harvest and you will often see the actual red beans on the side of the road, spread out over a tarp, drying in the sun.