Initiative to turn Panama into a re-export window
Agricultural transformation expert, Didio Batista, said that this initiative would increase the importance of the food production sector in the country. “The logistics center of this kind in Panama would be to import food from different countries for processing or semi processing and distribute to different markets,” emphasized Batista, director of this department of the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA).
According to Batista, Panama already has a full logistics network for the region and it has many advantages to access trade with maritime, air and land transport.
For the official, the project location must be in the main ports and more infrastructure would be needed, creating more jobs and greater reach.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Nestor Gonzáles said that one of the government's plans is to turn the country into a reservoir of products taking into account that while in some places in certain periods of the year it is summer, in others it is winter.
“This is the time to have the domestic producer use factors that influence the global economy. We’re making a clustering potential for export products such as cocoa and five other products,” he said.
Gonzalez explained that exports have declined slightly in some areas, such as pineapple, but others have increased, such as bananas and coffee as not only exported grain, but also toasted. “The higher the added value to the products, we will have major exports”.
He added that within 90 to 120 days, the consulting company retained by the Ministry of Economy and Finance will have ready the long-term industrial strategy that will provide tools for agribusiness to boost their sector.
Source: thebulletinpanama.com
