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This is an overview of the food service industry in Honduras, encompassing the hotel, restaurant, and institutional sectors. It also discusses current market trends and the most promising product opportunities.

The Government of Honduras implemented a new and complicated import permit system for the importation of rice and poultry that has caused major problems for U.S. shippers of these products and their customers.

Honduras is the twenty-seventh most important export destination for consumer goods from the United States. Honduras' imports for fiscal year 2022 was $522.6 million, ranking second only to Guatemala in Central America and sixth in the Americas.

Honduras coffee production is expected to reach 7.2 million 60-kilogram bags in marketing year 2022-23, a thirty-three percent increase from the previous year.

Sugar production and exports are projected slightly up in marketing year (MY) 2024 (October 2023 to September 2024) because of the increase in productivity yields, harvested area, and additional investments made in the sugar sector and increased exports, as the Honduran Sugar Industry fully recovers from the rainy season in November 2022.

Honduras is the 24th largest market for U.S. agricultural exports, and the third largest market under the Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which entered into force for Honduras in 2006.

The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR)[1] region and Panama combine to represent the seventh-largest market for U.S consumer-oriented products, totaling $3.7 billion in 2022.

In 2022 Honduras has made no modifications or changes to its existing regulatory framework. As of October 2022, Honduras had more than 52,000 hectares (ha) of genetically engineered (GE) Corn production, a 37 percent increase from calendar 2021.

U.S. exporters enjoy a strong position in the Honduran market, thanks to the CAFTA-DR agreement. More than 95 percent of U.S. industrial and commercial goods can enter the country duty free, with the remaining tariffs to be phased out by 2025. Import tariffs for rice and chicken leg quarters will be eliminated in 2023, as well as for dairy products in 2025.

SENASA and ARSA have made significant progress in expediting import procedures with the introduction of on-line options for requesting import permits, sanitary authorizations of imported raw materials, etc. that provides immediate electronic delivery to ports of entry. They also authorized in 2021 a private logistics hub that includes SENASA and Customs Clearance.

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

This report gives an overview of the food service – hotel, restaurant, and institutional sectors in Honduras and outlines current market trends, including best product prospects. In general, Hondurans like to dine out, both for convenience (mainly people working outside of the home) and on the weekends with family.