There is one concrete project for doing business with Colombia – a country that is looking for agricultural machinery and technology for the post-harvest. The agricultural sector is spearheading the Colombian economic growth. The outlook seems increasingly promising thanks to the pacification process which is allowing the recovery of wide areas suitable for agriculture.
Furthermore, the relationship between Italy and Colombia is improving on a political level, also. The relationship aims at promoting the improvements of commercial agreements – also thanks to the Double-Fiscal Imposition Agreement and the Partnership Memorandum on energetic resources, both of which were signed at the beginning of 2018.
These achievements will be of great help for Emilia-Romagna – which is the most important Italian region for the production of technologies and accessories. Several talks and meetings to explain our initiatives were organised by the Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna in collaboration with Sistema Camerale Emiliano-Romagnolo and with the economic support of the regional government.
Specifically, the project entails an institutional mission to Colombia in order to present the specialised agri-food supply chain. Also, there will be an event for the launch of the Colombia Project – in collaboration with the chosen local partner and the Italian embassy in Bogotá.
In a second phase, Colombian operators will visit Italy from 7th to 12th May – at the same time as the Macfruit fair.
After that, from 18th to 20th September, Italian entrepreneurs will go to Medellin to participate in the “Expo AgroFuturo” specialised fair and in a related networking event. In the next two months, we will implement the contacts we made during the fair so that we can close our commercial deals.
Colombia recorded a 1.84% GDP increase than in 2017. It is the fourth Latin-American economy behind Brasil, Mexico and Argentina – additionally, Colombia is the second most populated country in South America.
The Free Trade Agreement between the EU, Colombia and Peru greatly reduced the customs duties. In this way, it facilitated Italian exports to Colombia. In 2017, they were around 590 million euros, while Italian imports from Colombia were 627 million euros. Furthermore, Italian investments in Colombia are growing – they reached 30 million dollars in 2017.
