The Market Information Organization of the Americas
The Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA) hosted its XXI Regular Meeting at the IICA Head Office, in San José, Costa Rica from 16th to 18th November.
The objective of the meeting is to strengthen the collaboration among the Agricultural Market Information Systems (MIS) of the hemisphere. The Regular Meeting also allows for the introduction of technological innovations or good practices that could be adopted by the Organization and its members.
The MIOA is a corporation network, collaborating and integrating with government institutions and their partners. The main functions are to collect, process and disseminate data relevant to markets and or to related Agricultural products.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs (MAFBA) representative in the three days forum was Jason Fleming, IT Specialist.
The MIOA’s Principles are (1) Market information is a public good (2) Cooperation leads to mutual benefits (3) Exposure to new ideas and practices stimulates new innovation and continuous improvement (4) Timely reliable and important market information is essential for an effective Agricultural Marketing System.
It is hoped that through building more stronger linkages and further the development of this network could only foster better policies and systems to improve how business in the entire region (both Latin America and the Caribbean) is conducted in more efficient and cost-effective in areas such as marketing, trade and transportation.
“This is something I hope can continue. We need to continue making linkages because we are too small to be on our own. We can’t all keep having individual systems, we need to work in the same system or together in one system. I look forward to the day when we have our own marketing system, Fleming said.
The states of this region represented at the seminar were Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica and St. Lucia normally more countries would be in attendance.