Mexico’s first International Shrimp Fair
Mexico is having its first international shrimp fair and it coincides with Shrimp Week celebrated from August eight to the fourteenth. The two-day event, which will be held in Chetumal, Quintana Roo on the fifteenth and sixteen of August, is expected to boost the exportation of shrimp to Mexico from Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. The exhibition is expected to attract a large number of investors who are looking for markets and services in the industry. On display will also be technology involved in the farming process and samples of the crustacean available at different aquaculture farms. At a press conference held at the Mexican Institute in Belize City today, officials from various sectors in Quintana Roo said the fair will also include cultural exchanges from participating countries. Ambassador of Mexico, Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno, says that F.I.C. 2009 will provide many opportunities for shrimp farmers.
H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno, Mexican Ambassador
“What we are doing now with the relationship with Belize and Mexico is changing everything. We have special ideas that are coming from the Mexican president and one of them is to change everything in the trade relationship and cultural, health and everything as well that we now see in operation on a daily basis. This international shrimp fair has the commitment to enhance the producers with the buyers and to promote the economic growth of the region. We understand that, for example, the shrimp market from Belize is affected by many regulations we have in place in Mexico. So what happen we can promote a special fair to buy shrimp from Belize and sell this shrimps in the Mexican area and what happens is we can invite the media to promote these kinds of activities. So the main goal is very easy—to support the producers, to support the sector of restaurants in Mexico and to promote the economic development of the region. We are promoting and opening the market for lobster, for meat, and other produce from Belize. I explained before that in Mexico and Quintana Roo, we have no land to produce meat, to produce fresh products. And we have no farms to produce shrimp, for example and we are partners and we are promoting now that the producers from Belize can expand their companies and their sector using the Mexican market.”
According to the Ambassador, fifty percent of the shrimp produced in Belize at farms such as Royal Mayan Shrimp Farm and Belize Aquaculture Limited is bought by Mexico.
