Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. — With over 300 attendants from 20 Mexican states and 5 countries, and under the “Search for the Lost Productivity” theme, the third annual AMHPAC’s Technical and Business Oriented Congress held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, August 25-27th, was a total success. The country’s leading protected horticulture association was inaugurated by AMHPAC’s current chairman of the board, Cesar Campaña, who was accompanied in the presidium by leaders of the Mexican agricultural sector such as Ramiro Cardenas: president of AMCI (Mexican Association of Greenhouse Constructors), Mauro Jimenez: president of Jalisco’s CNA (National Agricultural Council), Armando Borboa: president of CAADES (Agriculture Associations Confederation of the State of Sinaloa), Mariano Ruiz: Undersecretary of Agriculture (SAGARPA), Alvaro Garcia: Rural Development Secretary for the State of Jalisco, Juan Antonio Gonzalez: Delegate of the Mexican Department of Agriculture in the State of Jalisco and Benjamin Grayeb: CNA’s Local Representative.
“It is an honor for me to be present at this event that it is focused on improving Mexico’s protected agriculture sector since today, food production is a topic we all worked together on a daily basis”, said Mariano Ruiz who participated at this congress on behalf of the Mexican Department of Agriculture’s Secretary, Francisco Mayorga.
Attendees of this technical and business oriented congress were able to learn from and interact with recognized speakers such as Dr. Arnulfo Del Toro at the Mexican Department of Agriculture, who explained the plans of the federal government to further develop the protected agricultural sector in Mexico, Mark Munger, Marketing and Communications Director for San Diego, CA-based Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce, provided attendees with his perspective on what he feels is happening in the next season and the analysis of marketing strategies that should follow.
The first conference of the business congress was held by Nancy Tucker, Vice President of Global Business Development for Produce Marketing Association (PMA), who shared the association’s overview of the challenges the produce market is facing globally while the last conference was presented by Sergio Garcia de Alba, former Mexican Secretary of Economy and Director of WTC Confianza, who spoke about air shipments opportunities and logistics.
On the first day, the first business oriented congress forum was presented by Jorge Rodriguez, Director and Partner of Apoyo en Capital Intelectual, who helped attendees to better identify and analyze their expectations and needs when dealing with concurrent company negotiations, while the second business congress forum was presented by Juan Antonio Aguila, a Business & Humanities Professor at the Monterrey Tech, who successfully shared his expertise on specialized topics such as emotional intelligence, effective communication and more.
At the end of the business oriented congress day, a round table panel with the presence of Nancy Tucker, Jaime Chamberlain: President of Chamberlain Distributing and President of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA), Raymundo Gomez: Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Mexico City’s terminal market (CEDAAC), Mark Munger and Fried De Schouwer from Greenhouse Produce Company, to discuss what the North American market demands at every segment of the produce supply chain and how everyone from the panel sees the challenges and opportunities presented today and ahead.
Eric Viramontes, general manager for AMHPAC commented: “We are all excited about the growing success of our annual congress. This is a wonderful opportunity for participants not only to learn about new market trends and farming techniques from internationally recognized speakers but to network with other colleagues and decision makers from various parts of the world”.
The second day, the technical congress opened with a forum presented by Francisco Gutierrez who explained the fundamentals of process administration and systematical thinking, followed by the first technical congress conference, provided by Constantinos Kittas at the University of Tesalia in Greece, who made emphasis on the effects the greenhouse structure have on crop behavior. Evangelina Medrano from IFAPA Spain, spoke about the incorporation of a model to help anticipate the plant transpiration through commercial irrigation, as a way to control water supply for hydroponic farming. Victor Manuel Loaiza from Eurofresh Farms shared his knowledge on technical solutions to prevent plant growth reduction caused by stress generated by heat in three different Mexican climate regions, the next speaker was Ricardo Alvarez from Campo Pablo Borquez, who presented ways to recover productivity through the use of bio-rational crop management, and the final technical congress conference was presented by Antonio Gimenez from Koppert Spain, who gave an interesting overview of the present and future of biological pest control around the world.
With the purpose of increasing both countries cooperation while improving the relationship between marketers, negotiators and government officials, a day after the technical and business oriented congress was over, AMHPAC held a Mexico-Canada bi-national round table at the Crowne Plaza hotel followed by a field trip to Agricola Cueto Produce’s greenhouse operation in Sayula, Jalisco, to show participants this Mexican agribusiness world class food safety practices. The field trip on Saturday, October 25th, was closed by a Mexican Night where local and Canadian guests were able to enjoy Mexico’s authentic and traditional folklore, dances and food.
Source: AMHPAC