CATIE present at Costa Rican fair for sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector

• CATIE participated in the Agro-transformación 2022 event, which was attended by more than 400 people to exchange knowledge on the modernization of the agricultural and livestock sector in Costa Rica.

April 27, 2022. Over the years, CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and the Foreign Trade Promotion Agency of Costa Rica (PROCOMER) have worked together on technical-productive activities, as well as on advisory and consulting services. The most recent collaboration took place in 2021 to provide tools for the analysis and management of sustainable value chains to staff members of the inter-institutional network of the program DESCUBRE.

As part of this collaboration, CATIE was invited to the second edition of the Agrotransformación 2022, which was organized by PROCOMER and the National Learning Institute (INA, Its Spanish acronym) in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG. Its Spanish acronym), the National Bank and Corteva as strategic allies.

The purpose of the fair was to showcase the generation of new business and investment opportunities, as well as to showcase and transfer technologies for the modernization of resilient agriculture and the exchange of knowledge for a more sustainable, inclusive and profitable agricultural sector.

CATIE's Environmental Economics and Sustainable Agribusiness Unit, together with Environment for Development (EfD), participated on behalf of the Center to present the actions that are currently being developed at the research and external projection level on the urgent changes that, given the current climate challenges, will generate valuable information for decision makers, producers, farmers and entrepreneurs.

The academic work carried out through the Master's Degree in Agribusiness Management and Sustainable Marketswas also presented, which is considered the most innovative program in Latin America and the Caribbean in this area and where professionals from all over the world are encouraged to create strategies for the development of responsible business with social and environmental resources, as well as to face the various challenges that lead to a transformation of the sector.

"Having been part of this event filled us with motivation and demonstrated the key role that CATIE must continue to play in the innovation processes in the different value chains of products and services linked to agriculture, where there are many challenges to overcome, with sustainability being the common goal of all the actors who are participating," said Adriana Escobedo, coordinator of the Center's Master's program in Agribusiness Management and Sustainable Markets. 

As part of our participation in this event, we were able to resume relations with national institutions, such as INA, the Costa Rican Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO, its Spanish acronym), among others, to identify new opportunities for joint work, as well as with the private sector.

DESCUBRE is an initiative led by PROCOMER with the support of COMEX and MAG, as well as the Development Banking System (SBD, its Spanish acronym), the private sector and academia, which seeks to increase the productivity of agriculture and fishing activities through a constant process of product and market discovery, as well as overcoming barriers and eliminating bottlenecks.