AMHPAC renews its Directive Board

After a period of three years, the producers in the Mexican Association for Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC, for its initials in Spanish) elected again the members of the Directive Board, who will represent the guild for the next 3-year period.

AMHPAC was based on a Strategic Work Plan, consisting of nine guiding shafts with clear and precise objectives. Same as over these 3 years, the Directive Board, headed by Cesar Campaña Acosta, has stayed on track looking for full compliance with each of the commitments acquired through this plan.

After playing a great role and achieving successful agreements, many of the Council members were reelected for those attending to the Ordinary General Assembly unanimously.

Listed below are the names of those who remain and those who are recently integrated into the new Directive Board.

Those who remain:

·         Cesar Campana Acosta. - President

·         Rigoberto Quintero Torres. - Secretary

·         Carlos Wigge de Alba. - Treasurer

·         Enrique Rodarte Espinoza de los Monteros. - Vocal Counselor

·         Javier Rivas Olmedo. - Vocal Counselor

The new members:

·         Carlos Cueto. - Vice-president

·         Carlos Espinoza Pablos. - President of the Supervision Committee

·         Juan Ariel Reyes Rabago. - Vocal Counselor

·         Javier Ignacio Lopez Ruffo. - Vocal Counselor

·         Alejandro Gleason Becerril. - Vocal Counselor

AMHPAC’s Third Technical Business Convention

Exceeded the expectations

With an attendance of more than 300 people, from 20 states of Mexico and five countries, the event was a complete success.

As every year, the Technical Business Convention and General Ordinary Assembly of the Mexican Association for Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC, for its initials in Spanish) was held in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco, which began with the event designed for businessmen.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by important figures of the industry in the table of the presidium, which consisted of:

Mr. Ramiro Cardenas Ornelas, President of the Mexican Greenhouse Builders Association (AMCI), Mr. Mauro Jimenez Iniguez: President of the National Agricultural Council Jalisco (CNAJ), Mr. Armando Borboa Lopez: President of the Confederation of Agricultural Associations in the State of Sinaloa (CAADES), Mr. Cesar Campana Acosta: President of AMHPAC’s Directive Board.

Mr. Mariano Ruiz Funes Macedo: Subsecretary of Agriculture (SAGARPA), Mr.  Alvaro Garcia Chavez: Rural Development Secretary of Jalisco, Juan Antonio Gonzalez: SAGARPA delegate for Jalisco and Benjamin Grayeb: Representative of the National Agricultural Council (CNA).

Mr. Mariano Ruiz Funes Macedo, on behalf of the Secretary of SAGARPA, Francisco Mayorga, mentioned it was an honor to be present at an event focused on the improvement of protected agriculture, as at present food production is an issue in which they work every day.

After the Subsecretary spoke a few words to those attending the event, Cesar Acosta Campana, current President of AMHPAC, invited all attendees to benefit from the different conferences and forums of the event, same as they were focused on topics such as communication, air logistics, advanced negotiation and closed the day with a round table called: What does the market want from Mexico?

The lectures were heard by the attendees who participated actively with questions to the experts.

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·         Federal Government Actions for Protected Horticulture in 2010. - By Dr. Arnulfo Del Toro who informed the attendees about the plans of the government has for the protected agriculture guild in Mexico.

·         Season 2010, strategy or just luck? .- Mark Munger who since 2002 is responsible for business development and all marketing and communication activities in Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce, in his key conference allowed to have a better perspective of what will happen in the next season and reflect on strategies to follow.

·         Air logistics for profitable markets. - Sergio Alejandro Garcia de Alba, who was the Secretary of Economy during Vicente Fox’s administration, talked about the infrastructure that the Company WTC Trust has, which he currently directs, and the business alliances with other companies to address the logistics of perishable foods for export.

·         The Advanced Negotiation Forum. - Jorge Rodriguez Gaytan, who is currently the Director and Support Partner of Intellectual Capital, during his talk he helped the audience to identify, analyze their expectations and needs in terms of the negotiations that arise within companies. He also identified what techniques are successful and can take them from where they are, to where they want to position themselves, as to their purpose of negotiation is concerned.

·         Comunic Action Forum. - Juan Antonio Aguila Marin, who is currently a teacher at the School of Business and Humanities, who successfully taught the specialized forum in communication in companies, emotional intelligence, intelligent self-esteem, effective communication, among other aspects. This conference was the one with greater participation by the audience, as Aguila Marin was constantly interacting with them, also conducting activities to keep the audience always attentive.

·         Finally, the round table called: what does the market want from Mexico? was moderated by Adrian Rivera and where foreign traders participated such as Nancy Tucker, VP of Global Development for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) who spoke about the global market perspective; Jaime Chamberlain, the current General Director of Chamberlain Distributing and President of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA), who talked about the behavior of marketers and distributors in the U.S. and Raymundo Gomez Orta, Secretary of the Governing Board of the Central for Supply in Mexico City (CEDAAC) who talked about the strategies of the national supply network, the traditional and the modern channel; also formed part of this panel Mark Munger from Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce and Fried of Schouwen from Greenhouse Produce Co.

In some cases there was room for questions and answers, where there was great interest from the attendees. At the end of each conference, the speakers were given a recognition diploma for attending the Convention as a way of thanking them for their valuable contribution.

Agriculture experts gathered at the Technical Convention 

To close with a flourish, AMHPAC’s Third Technical Convention, held in Zapopan last August, the technical event was conducted where they talked about issues such as climate control, crop transpiration on irrigation equipment, biorational crop management, and a forum called “Process Administration and Systemic Thinking”, among others.

To develop these issues of great importance for the protected agriculture guild in Mexico, we were able to gather leading experts from around the world such as Greece, Spain and Mexico. The speakers were:

Francisco Gutierrez. - Forum: Process Administration and Systemic Thinking. During this conference, it was explained the relevance of this issue for the success of businesses, and how employees, leaders or members of some process, need to develop a sense of competence in order to solve in a holistic, efficient and effective manner, the problems of improvement.

·         Constantinos Kittas. -  Characteristics and analysis of the effects on the climate control equipment on greenhouses on the microclimate and crop response. During his conference, he emphasized the effects of greenhouse structure, including materials, climate control equipment and crop behavior in greenhouse microclimate and crop response.

·         Evangelina Medrano. - The incorporation of a model to predict crop transpiration in commercial irrigation equipment as a control method for the supply of water to horticultural crops without soil. She talked during her conference about the incorporation of a model to predict crop transpiration in commercial irrigation equipment as a control method for the supply of water to horticultural crops without soil.

·         Antonio Gimenez Marzo. - Present and future of biological control of pests in the world. Gimenez Marzo analyzed the substantial success of biological control, which included both cases where the gains are less considerable, since pests and crop are less important, or when the area of growth is small, or because pesticides are used occasionally (reducing the number of applications), and cases where a higher quality, performance and savings are somehow present throughout the entire cycle, makes a considerable difference in comparison with traditional production methods.   

·         Francisco Gutierrez. - Forum: Process Administration and Systemic Thinking. During this conference, it was explained the relevance of this issue for the success of businesses, and how employees, leaders or members of some process, need to develop a sense of competence in order to solve in a holistic, efficient and effective manner, the problems of improvement.

·         Victor Manuel Loaiza. - Technical solutions to prevent the reduction in crop growth, caused by the heat stress in three climatic regions in Mexico. Loaiza Mejia showed that due to the lack of information concerning heat stress and weather conditions in Mexico, a new temperature correction curve was determined, which provides the optimal climate for crop development and produce to its full potential. On this curve, the optimal temperature is higher than on the original curve, created in the Netherlands. Likewise, he also showed how cooling systems were tested using a simulator, taking into account the maximum heat tolerance of tomato, the main effects that high temperatures have on growth and crop yield.

·         Ricardo Alvarez. - Biorational management in crop production. On his lecture he seeked, along with the audience, how to restore field productivity, the latter through the application of techniques related to the theme of his presentation.

Conferences were taught successfully, since the participation of the audience was way more noticeable than in years before, and this was a result of a space designated at the end of each conference and a forum for questions and answers.

AMHPAC conducts the binational meeting

Mexico – Canada

In order to establish good relations with traders, negotiators and representatives of SAGARPA in Canada, a roundtable was held on Saturday, August 28, this at the end of the Third Technical  Business Convention that the Mexican Association for Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC for its initials in Spanish) organized, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Guadalajara.

The main objective of the meeting was to establish a work agenda to address the points that may help establish and strengthen links between authorities, marketers, producers and decision makers mainly from Canada.

Right after, it was conducted a round of questions and answers where feedback was reached in a very satisfying manner for both parties. Besides, Canadian marketers mentioned that they support the actions that AMHPAC is currently doing in order to strengthen relationships and recommend to continue efforts.

After the meeting attendees enjoyed in a more informal environment, a lunch organized by the association, then took a tour around the facilities of the Cueto Produce Agricultural Company and learned about new projects being undertaken for the care and improvement of soil and crops.

Also during the tour they were able to meet food safety processes that are being used within the agricultural company.

To conclude the day, a Mexican night was featured for visitors from other countries to get to know a little about habits, traditions, dances and cuisine that are enjoyed daily in Mexico.