July 14, 2023
Ambassador William Duncan, El Salvador’s Secretary of Trade and Investment, Jorge Miguel Kattan; the Minister of Economy, Maria Luisa Hayem, the Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, the Minister of Agriculture, Oscar Guardado, the President of the Central Reserve Bank, Douglas Rodríguez, and the Director General of Customs, Benjamín Mayorga, participated in the signing of the regional project Agricultural Trade and Climate Smart Innovations (ATraCSI/Agricultural Trade and Climate Smart Innovations), funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food for Progress program. The program, which benefits El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, seeks to address the causes of migration through a holistic approach to trade through the horticulture sector.
The project seeks to support 22,486 direct beneficiaries and 112,267 indirect beneficiaries by improving customs systems and procedures; implementing measures under existing Trade Facilitation Agreements (TFAs); building institutional capacity in sanitary and phytosanitary matters; strengthening sanitary and phytosanitary risk management systems and regional harmonization; and strengthening on-farm horticultural value chains to curb economic pressures for migration.
The regional project will be executed by IESC together with Corporación de Exportadores de El Salvador (COEXPORT), Asociación Guatemalteca de Exportadores (AGEXPORT), Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA), Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), Purdue University and the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO).
