Some 360 Colombian exporters are in Miami to boost sales of their products to North America.
The International Business Matchmaking Forum, organized by Colombia's Trade Ministry, is "to provide a win-win situation for Colombian exporters, USA, Canadian, Mexico and Caribbean buyers to get ahead of their competitors by finding new business opportunities and establishing trade partnerships."
The two-day event is part of the Colombian government's diversifaction strategy to be less dependent on only a few export markets, particularly that of Venezuela. Sales to that country dropped more than 50 percent following tensions between the conservative government of Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe and that of his leftwing Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez.
The Colombian exporters have pre-arranged meetings with some 240 importers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, the director of Colombia's export promotion agency Proexport, Maria Elvira Pombo, told Florida newspaper Sun Sentinel.
Colombia held similar but smaller export events recently in Chile, Brazil and Guatemala, Pombo said.
