Adriana Campos, Technical Specialist in International Trade at IICA; Ariel Londinsky, Secretary General of the Pan-American Dairy Federation (FEPALE); and Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of IICA.
San José, 19 May 2026 (IICA). The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Muhammad Ibrahim, and the Secretary General of the Pan-American Dairy Federation (FEPALE), Ariel Londinsky, held a high-level technical meeting to deepen coordination between the two organizations and consolidate strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of the regional dairy sector.
During the meeting, held at IICA Headquarters in San José, the participants discussed technical progress on the project linked to the Regional Sustainable Development Agenda for the Dairy Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, jointly promoted by FEPALE, IICA, CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF).
This initiative seeks to promote regional mechanisms for technical cooperation, productive sustainability, climate resilience, and the strengthening of institutional capacities for the sector, as well as to coordinate actions and report on progress generated within the framework of the DSF methodology.
Ibrahim and Londinsky also analyzed opportunities for technical support by IICA in the process of implementing the Mercosur–European Union Agreement, particularly in aspects related to export and import quotas for dairy products, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and issues concerning denominations of origin and access to international markets.
Another of the meeting’s central topics was consolidating cooperation and collaboration to strengthen the availability of dairy sector statistics, through technical coordination between FEPALE’s Dairy Sector Observatory and IICA’s Observatory of Public Policies for Agrifood Systems (OPSAa), with the aim of strengthening the availability of strategic information for decision-making, public policy design, and the monitoring of sector indicators.
The institutions also advanced in the coordination of joint initiatives with the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) and IICA’s national offices, with the aim of promoting an integrated regional agenda that contributes to territorial development, technological innovation, and the sustainability of dairy value chains.
As part of the agreed next steps, a High-Level IICA–FEPALE–CAF Technical Discussion Forum is expected to be held during the last quarter of the year, aimed at debating strategic challenges and opportunities for sustainable transformation in the regional dairy sector.
Likewise, cooperation between IICA and FEPALE will be promoted within the framework of the 7th Pan-American Meeting of Young Dairy Farmers (Chile, 2027), an initiative that FEPALE has carried out in recent years aimed at strengthening generational integration, youth leadership, and the incorporation of innovation into production systems.
Finally, the participants highlighted the possible participation of the institutions and stakeholders involved in the Regional Sustainable Development Agenda for the Dairy Sector at the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) to be held in Türkiye, as a strategic space to position the commitment of the Latin American dairy sector to climate action, sustainability, and food security.
The meeting reaffirms the commitment of FEPALE and IICA to a regional agenda of technical cooperation aimed at strengthening the competitiveness, sustainability, and international integration of the dairy sector in the Americas.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
