The Colombian government announced this Thursday that Athena Foods, a company of Minerva SA, a leader in exporting beef from South America, inaugurated its new beef processing plant in Bucaramanga (Santander) with an investment close to $100,000 millions.
This was said by the president of Colombia Ivan Duque, who stressed that this investment “will bring jobs, it will bring great export potential.”
I also emphasize that: “Also a message that Colombia, in that value-added chain, in what has to do with meat exports, is making a big difference, and this investment is going to position Colombia, also, in cutting-edge technology.” and, of course, with the idea, the inspiration to continue reaching new markets.”
In this context, he stated that in the last 26 months of his government, markets such as Chile, Asia, and the Persian Gulf have opened and “we have the idea of being able to reach the South Korean market and, also, the People's Republic of China and, of course, being able to reach the North American market.”
“This type of investment, which shows confidence in Colombia, motivates us to reach much more, with ambition, to new markets, and will also represent the strategic positioning of our agricultural sector,” he stated.
In turn, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Rodolfo Zea, stated that this investment “will generate more than 1,000 jobs, it will help us in economic reactivation.”
“It will allow us to continue on this path of exporting agricultural products and this year we will be able to break again the record of agricultural exports that was broken last year,” he added.
Next, the head of the Agriculture portfolio recalled that all the work to open new markets has been carried out together with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism; ProColombia, the embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
So far in 2020, Colombia's bovine exports exceed 17,000 tons; which represents more than 50% compared to what was in the same period of 2019.
