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Honduras Livestock
In the early 1980s, the cattle industry appeared to
have the
potential to be an important part of the Honduran economy.
The
Honduran cattle sector, however, never developed to the
extent that
it did in much of the rest of Central America. Cattle
production
grew steadily until 1980-81 but then declined sharply when
profits
fell because of high production costs. The small Honduran
meat
packing industry declined at the same time, and several
meat
packing plants closed. As late as 1987, livestock composed
16
percent of the value-added agricultural sector but the
industry
continued to decline. By 1991-92, beef exports accounted
for only
2.9 percent of the value of total exports.
Sales of refrigerated meat were the third or fourth
highest
source of export earnings in the mid-1980s, but like other
Honduran
agricultural products, beef yields were among the lowest
in Central
America. As world prices fell and production costs,
exacerbated by
drought, rose, there was less incentive to raise cattle.
For a
period of time, cattle farmers illegally smuggled beef
cattle to
Guatemala and other neighboring countries where prices
were higher,
but the Honduran cattle sector never became competitive
internationally. The two large banana companies have also
owned
large cattle ranches where they raised prime beef, but
these large
companies had the flexibility to change crops as the
market
demanded.
Honduran dairy herds fared about the same as beef
cattle, and
Honduran milk yields were also among the lowest in Central
America.
The dairy industry was further handicapped by the
difficulties of
trying to transport milk over poor roads in a tropical
country, as
well as by stiff competition in the domestic market from
subsidized
foreign imports, mostly from the United States.
Data as of December 1993
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