The congress was held in Panama City, attended by some 200 participants from 19 countries, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, England.
The event was sponsored by the Union of Nontraditional Agricultural Exporters of Panama (Gantrap) celebrating the 20th anniversary of these events that are held annually in different cities of the member countries.
Companies like Agro Dos Valle, of Panama, Costena Produce, of Costa Rica and Agrolibano, of Honduras, were awarded the merit of honour for their sustained efforts on behalf of the melon industry in their respective countries for several decades. Manuel Haito, president of Agro Dos Valle, gave thanks for the award and dedicated it to his son Manuel Haito Jr (QDDG), who died recently in a car accident in Panama.
Mauro Suazo, founding president of the Latin American Federation of Producers and Exporters of Melon and Watermelon (CLAPEMS) handed the presidency for the 2012-2013 period to his counterpart Alexis Bravo, president of Gantrap that, for a year
will be incharge of the event until it moves to Miami (Florida) in July 2013 for the XXI Congress held in that city which was voted unanimously by the representatives of the member countries.
"If the market does not come to us, we will go to the market," said Mauro Suazo, who organized and was responsible for the development of this event supported by representatives of melon producing companies from member countries who live in Florida. "We will make this Congress the best everyone has ever seen, " said Suazo, who expects support from importers, shipping lines, agencies of desaduane, trucking companies in North America, refrigerated melon storage companies that come from the region during the winter and other service companies close to the melon industry.
By 2013, Panama plans to penetrate the U.S. market again to avoid putting all their melons in one market, as it has done in Europe almost exclusively for the past two decades.