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From May 25 to May 31st Georgia companies attended the 90th Annual Matchmaking Forum in Colombia bringing together around 200 US buyers, international investors from around the world, and Colombian exporters in over 20 sectors.
This annual international trade forum promotes Colombian goods and services and provides a platform for foreign investors and local businesses to get to know each with the hopes that both parties will close new deals.
President of Colombia Ivan Duque was present for opening remarks alongside the President of ProColombia Flavia Santoro Trujillo, the Mayor of Cali, the Ministry of Commerce, the Industry and Tourism of Colombia and the Chamber of Commerce of Colombia.
In his opening speech, President Duque announced the United States as the guest of honor celebrating 200 years of bilateral relations and 10 years of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia. The results of the FTA are that the United States is the biggest investor and buyer of Colombian exports and that Colombia is now the 4th exporter in Latin America to the United States.
Investment Opportunities
As usual, the Matchmaking Forum organized by ProColombia, Colombia’s export, tourism and investment agency, focused on Colombian non-mining and non-energy export chains.
In her opening speech, Trujillo shared that “in 2021 Colombia achieved the largest non-mining energy exports in its history, with US$18,186 million and a growth of 24.5% compared to 2020 and 18.7% compared to 2019,” according to Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).
The various sector sourcing opportunities in Colombia include agri-food, manufacturing, chemical and life sciences (pharmaceutical), industry 4.0 and apparel. These were the sectors highlighted during the forum and many of the Georgia companies who traveled to Colombia belong to the apparel, manufacturing, and agri-food sectors.
Additional opportunities for Georgia companies to partner with Colombian exporters include IT and FinTech services. Another sector of opportunity, Trujillo pointed out, is the green energy industry. During a meeting with the US Ambassador to Colombia, Philip Goldberg, beyond the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry, they discussed working to define opportunities within the goods and services sector. For example, they would like to introduce sheep, poultry, and other meat products as soon as possible, Trujillo shared.
According to Juan Carlos López Gutiérrez, Managing Director of the Colombia and Mexico division at the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), Colombia is working to transition the fossil fuel and petroleum-related power industry into a greener industry of renewable energy. “Investment in solar grid solutions such as hydrogen and other green alternatives are opening up,” Guiterrez shares. “Compared to other regions in Latin America Colombia has been the one country that has demonstrated a lot of development in the green energy industry,” and “now that Georgia is moving towards green mobility” there are a lot of mid and long-term partnerships and “goal options in solar green power.”
Colombian Sourcing
Among the companies in Colombia looking to expand to the US or currently distributing throughout Georgia, Global Atlanta spoke with representatives from Colombina, Manitoba, Del Alba, Aldor, and Dulces Celis.
In an interview with Mariana Dorronsoro, head of international sales at Del Alba, a 20-year exporter of premium nuts, grains, and fruits, when asked what the companies goal was for this year’s trade forum Dorronsoro replied: “We had some very strategic meetings with supermarkets abroad, so our goal is to reach more supermarkets abroad in the Americas.” Since “shipment and transportation are expensive,” she stated, “it is important to sell nearby because when selling to Europe sometimes you have a container, and [these] prices have doubled or tripled.” In the Southeast United States, they currently sell to Publix, Win-Dixie and (Milos??).
On the other end of the spectrum, Dulces Celis operates on a smaller scale and is still working to break through to the US market. Advertising their sweet treats as appealing to the traditional flavors of Latin America some of their flavors include: dulce de leche, rice with lemon, rice with coconut, among others and increasingly new pairings, all while staying true to the original flavors that his father After years of virtual reunions due to COVID-19 hopes were high among local businesses that these in-person meetings would increase the possibility of a fruitful partnership with American buyers.
For the first time the annual trade forum, traditionally held in Bogota, was held in Medellin and Cali to support and bring investors closer to industry locations.
Following the Annual Matchmaking Forum, it was announced that the International Macro Business Matchmaking Forum will be held in the United States during the second half of 2022, continuing the celebration of 200 years of bilateral relations with the US.
See more from Global Atlanta’s dispatch to the 2022 Global Matchmaking Forum in Cali, Colombia below:
![Aurora Perez[left] of Global Atlanta and Alyse Thompson [middle] of Candy Industry Magazine at BNP interview Mariana Dorronsoro[right], head of international sales at Del Alba. Photo by: Andrea Peña of ProColombia](https://i0.wp.com/www.globalatlanta.com/wp-content/uploads/e0b2f580-16f7-4fce-89b7-ae1ce4d12716.jpg?ssl=1 "e0b2f580-16f7-4fce-89b7-ae1ce4d12716")
![Owners of Celis [middle in blue shirt and far right], a sweets manufacturing business. Photo by: Andrea Peña of ProColombia](https://i0.wp.com/www.globalatlanta.com/wp-content/uploads/a0ae3433-5367-4d3e-838e-ad8cc7efa15b.jpg?ssl=1 "a0ae3433-5367-4d3e-838e-ad8cc7efa15b")