In response to the need to direct the economic growth of Latin American countries toward a smart, sustainable and inclusive model, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has released its report on the challenges and opportunities offered by the agroindustry, based on a joint agreement between the public and private sectors.
With this strategic focus, the entity held an event last Thursday (27.10.2022) in its auditorium in the City of Buenos Aires to present cases of insertion in international agri-food markets.
“One of the conclusions of the report is the enormous opportunity that Latin American and Caribbean countries have to integrate into global value chains,” he said at the beginning. Agustín Aguerre, IDB representative in Argentina. He explained that the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Russia's war against Ukraine and inflation have disrupted supply chains in strategic industries, directly impacting food security. He said that countries, like companies, are seeking to reorganize their chains towards closer suppliers to increase agility and resilience in supplies. Aguerre also highlighted the moment that is offered to the agroindustry: the region has shown competitive strength, but still has challenges for value addition with productive transformation, inclusion of small producers and adaptability to climate change.
To this end, Ernesto Stein, IDB representative in Mexico, led the presentation of the research. And developed a finding based on the transformation of vertical structure, within the agro-industry sector itself, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by modern agro-export value chains.
“Integrating into these value chains is not easy,” Stein said. This requires that the producers meet the quality standards and comply with the commercial conditions imposed by international buyers. They must also respect the specific demands of the consumers linked to a lower impact on societies and the environment. For the private sector to prosper - Stein continued - it is required that governments fulfill their role, putting on the table the necessary public goods such as road and irrigation infrastructure, trade agreements, phytosanitary control, research, extension work and financing.
Because of this, the IDB analyzed 30 success stories, which have six value identification strategies and three production organization models. “There is no single recipe,” Stein clarified. The report details some examples ranging from organic honey produced with fair trade schemes by beekeeping cooperatives in the Gran Chaco ecoregion in Argentina, to small organic mango producers in Nicaragua, whose production, through a tractor company, is inserted into the value chains of companies such as Happy Family (of the Danone group) or Innocent Drinks (of Coca Cola).
For its part, Romina Ordoñez, specialist in the division of environment, rural development and natural disaster risk management (RND) He complemented the presentation of the report with the environmental challenges and their relationship with the agricultural sector. He also considered three conclusions in the context of the climate change It is urgent: 1) Food production models that tend to reduce the environmental footprint are spreading in the region. 2) Agro-exporting companies can be a relevant agent of change in this transition towards production models with low environmental impact. 3) The transition to more sustainable production models has an initial cost, which not all producers can afford. “This creates a clear opportunity for the public sector and international organizations to support this policy approach with financing, technical knowledge and dissemination to achieve key objectives,” he concluded.
With an emphasis on how experiences can be improved by
a more comprehensive and systemic look, the event continued with two panels different: “International insertion” y “Promotion of the agro-industrial sector”, moderated by Juan Carlos Hallak (CONICET Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy) and Ana Basco (Director of INTAL).
The invited participants of the private sector The Argentines were Tatiana Malvasio, co-founder of Kilimo; René Sayago, General Manager of Development at Coopsol; Santiago Pendino, CEO of TT-Global and Martín Sackmann, Manager of Innovation and Technical Development at Los Grobo.
Representatives of the public sector National and provincial: Ariel Lucero (Minister of Production and Economic Development of San Juan)), Diana Maria Guillen (President of SENASA) and Mariano Dante Cesar Garmendia (President of INTA). The moderators were Juan Carlos Hallak and Ana Basco (Director of INTAL).
During the event, there was an "optimistic" closing message from Juan José Bahillo, Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Nation.
The report thus presents a new and collaborative strategy for policymakers in Latin America, conveying a sense of urgency and purpose that has been lacking until now and is now needed.Report “Competing in agribusiness. Business strategies and public policies for the challenges of the 21st century”)
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