Market information systems to be strengthened in Latin America and the Caribbean

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 2013 (IICA). The Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA), a hemispheric network whose technical secretariat is operated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), is to support the compilation, processing, and sharing of data on agricultural markets in Latin America and the Caribbean.

At a meeting of the MIOA Executive Committee held at IICA Headquarters in San Jose, the organization agreed to work to improve the data compilation capabilities of the agricultural market information systems (AMIS) of 14 Caribbean countries, while in Central America financing will be sought to increase the benefits of the Regional Fruit Market Intelligence System (SIMEFRUT) and other initiatives.

“Thanks to the MIOA, the countries of the Americas are more aware of how important it is to have reliable information for market intelligence, information that must be gathered and processed according to international standards,” IICA’s Deputy Director General, Lloyd Day, explained.

The chairman of the MIOA, Terry Long, pointed out that, “Market intelligence makes it possible to increase efficiency and transparency, and to tap economic opportunities, for the benefit of everyone involved in the agricultural sector, such as producers, merchants, and consumers.”

IICA has been in charge of the MIOA’s Technical Secretariat since 2004. “The Institute has played a key role in the consolidation of the MIOA, in the technical assistance that the organization provides to its member countries, and in the facilitation of horizontal cooperation among them,” remarked Frank Lam, an IICA agribusinesses and marketing specialist.

At the meeting in San Jose, the MIOA Executive Committee endorsed the consensus reached at the last meeting of IICA’s Executive Committee (October 2012) on the need for the ministers of agriculture of the Americas to support the efforts to strengthen, modernize, and guarantee the sustainability of national price and market information systems.

During the meeting of the IICA's Executive Committee, there was also agreement on the urgent need for the member countries of the Institute and the MIOA to bolster the latter organization both technically and financially, and to strengthen horizontal cooperation between countries and regions, two ideas that the MIOA’s Executive Committee also endorsed.

The Executive Committee of the MIOA will be meeting again in June this year, in Washington, to strengthen ties with the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank.

For more information, contact: 
frank.lam@iica.int