Colombia Seeks To Export Mango, Pitaya, Bell Peppers To US In Trade Talks

Colombia’s vice minister of foreign trade Laura Valdivieso Jiménez met this week with US undersecretary of commerce Gilbert Kaplan during his visit to Colombia to discuss trade, when she brought up for discussion agricultural admissibility of several agricultural products, specifically mangoes, pitayas (also called pitahayas and marketed as “dragon fruit”), and bell peppers.

In addition to the US Undersecretary of Commerce, representatives from Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture, ProColombia, and the Colombian Embassy participated in the meeting, which had the stated goal of increasing Colombia’s exports and diversifying the range of products that can be exported, taking advantage of the binational free-trade agreement between Colombia and The United States.

In the first half of this year, Colombia exported $6.85 billion USD worth of products, or 29% of the country’s entire exports, making the US Colombia’s most important trading partner. Of this total, $2.5 billion were exports other than mining or petroleum, increasing diversified trade by 1.75% over the same period last year.

In 2018, US direct investment in Colombia reached $2.478 billion USD, and in the first quarter of this year, $596.2 million USD. Telecommunications, finance and tourism received most of the US investors’ attention during that quarter.

Photo courtesy MinTIC