Faced with a more than 10  percent decline in exports this year, Panamanian authorities traveled to exchange information with Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) to learn from Costa Rica’s recent success exporting more than 100 products to different markets.

Panama’s official delegation included Deputy Minister Nestor Gonzalez, Exports Director Leyda Gonzalez, and directors of the Panamanian Association of Exporters (APEX). They met at the offices of Procomer to get to know the structure, operations, projects, and the services offered to the export sector.

They also exchanged information regarding practices for supporting and promoting Panama’s export development, and for diversifying exports.

The mission also included a meeting with the general director of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Victor Villalobos, with whom they spoke about access to market issues, search engines, market profiles to be used by the public and private sectors, and this organization’s free services.

This meeting is part of the implementation of a Technical Cooperation Agreement signed by the Panama and the IICA to strengthening the capacity of the private and public agriculture through trainings, promoting exports of selected products, and developing a country brand that allows  products to be promoted in formal export markets.

According to data from Panama’s General Comptroller from January-October, there was a 6.3 percent decline in banana exports, a 18.6 percent decrease in melons, and a 36.1 percent decline in pineapples.

“We won’t stop working to strengthen the capacities of the private productive sector and the development of emerging companies because our goal is to boost our exports and increase the list of products that have export potential,” Gonzalez said. – Panamaamerica.com