Agro-Food Park in Montevideo will improve the logistics and distribution of food in Uruguay

(Montevideo, September 16th). CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, together with the Nutritional Unit of Montevideo (UAM, for its acronym in Spanish), organized a seminar called "Desarrollo y Alimentación, Miradas de Europa y América Latina (Development and Nutrition. Views of Europe and Latin America). The activity showed the experiences of both regions with respect to food distribution, infrastructure projects, and the logistics associated to the food chain. In addition, details were provided about the master plan of the future Agro-Food Park in Montevideo, a project supported by the UAM that will imply an investment of USD 130 million.  

The proposal for the Agro-Food Park was developed by Mercasa and Mercabarna, Spanish companies that have developed similar initiatives in other parts of the world, Deloitte as a local counterpart, and the support of CAF. 

Gladis Genua, CAF´s Director Representative in the country, stated that "this is a very important project for Uruguay and the country´s food sector, as it not only improves the  storing and distribution of food, but it also positively impacts on the food safety of the population, the competitive development of the agro-food chain, in addition to placing the country at the vanguard with respect to agro-food parks". 

Genua highlighted that during this stage, the Institution supported the development of preliminary studies that enabled a definition of the park´s master plan by bringing to Uruguay the best international experiences. She indicated that "the success of this project may transform Uruguay into a model for other Latin American countries". 

At the same time, Carlos Colacce, President of UAM, highlighted the importance of this project for the country since the State approved the law that created the UAM. During his intervention, he thanked CAF for granting a non-reimbursable loan that made it possible to contract Mercasa, Mercabana and Deloitte to carry out the consultancy work that will enable the construction of the master plan of the agro-food park.  

In addition, Mario Mondelli, Director of Planning and Agricultural and Livestock Policies at the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fishing, pointed out that the enterprise will "improve the efficiency of the internal marketing  of food". 

The Agro-Food Park of Montevideo will imply an investment of USD 130 million, and will concentrate the activities currently developed in the Model Market.  It will be located at the 11,500 kilometer of Route 5y, and will ease congestion in Montevideo´s center. 

The new infrastructure will include 26,000 square meters for the wholesale of fruits and vegetables, spaces allocated for the sale of other fresh products such as flowers, milk products, meat, fishing products, other spaces reserved for logistic activities and foreign trade operations, in addition to a management and services center and public offices. It has been calculated that the enterprise will involve 600 companies and will directly generate 800 jobs.  

The seminar also included the participation of Andres de Pando, International Director of Mercasa; Josep Tejedo, General Director of Mercabarna; and Pablo Roselli, Partner and Director of Deloitte, who provided details of the project and shared the international experiences regarding this field of activity. Other participants were Ruben Barboza, General Secretary of the UAM; Antonio Sartorius, Project Director for the development of the Agro-Food Park of Montevideo; Pablo Vilanova, Director of Strategy and Marketing at Mercabarna, and Beatriz Aldave, from the Instituto Nacional de Alimentacion (National Nutrition Institute).