Bernard Herrera

Mexico - November 2010

Representative - FOCIR - Fund of Capitalization and Investment for the Rural Sector

In November, UNIDO ITPO Italy hosted a representative from FOCIR - Fund of Capitalization and Investment for the Rural Sector of Mexico, with the aim of identifying technologies and promoting investment opportunities in projects in agro-industry and renewable energy. The representative of FOCIR had a portfolio of projects mainly focused on agribusiness processing technologies. The main objective of his stay was the development of new olive plantations in the State of Baja California for 3200 hectares, the development of slaughterhouses for 1000 cows and 2000 swines from the associations of livestock in the state of Nayarit and Jalisco, the identification of technologies for transforming powder milk to fluid milk for isolated Mexican communities, as well as the processing of African palm oil for bio-diesel production. During his stay in Italy Mr. Herrera met the main actors involved in the olive oil sector, starting from companies specialized in technologies for olive harvesting to the main associations of olive oil producers i.e. UNAPROL. Thanks to ITPO Italy’s support, he was also able to establish contacts with leading technology providers in meat processing and visit one of the biggest slaughterhouses in Europe namely: INALCA. Finally, he received first hand information on financial facilities managed by SACE and SIMEST to support investment and technology transfer.