At the meeting of OIMA member countries and partners, held at IICA Headquarters in San Jose, the 26 participating delegations agreed to continue with a project to design a data dashboard and an application to compile price information on specific agricultural products by country.

The progress of the product catalogs for each region of the Americas was also highlighted, which make it possible to easily locate information and characteristics of common products for the same region.

Kimberly Mercer, President of OIMA and delegate from the United States, emphasized that this organization complements national efforts to seek support mechanisms that will enable the institutions of the member countries to strengthen their systems, provide and receive support from other nations and expand their capacity to generate, process and disseminate information to stakeholders in the agricultural sector of the Americas.

Rodrigo Li Guzmán, general manager of the Programa Integral de Mercadeo Agropecuario (PIMA) of Costa Rica, said that with OIMA assistance they have been able to train their personnel and exchange experiences with other countries.

"It is very important for PIMA to participate in this type of organization, especially because of the vast experience they have in issues such as training of data collection agents, statistics and dissemination and management of information. This allows us to integrate our information with that produced in different segments and in other countries, to create a regional information system that benefits all related actors", said Li Guzmán.

As part of the activities of the meeting in Costa Rica, the participants of the OIMA meeting visited the Centro Nacional de Abastecimiento y Distribución de Alimentos (CENADA), to learn about the on-site price collection process and establish a dialogue about the different characteristics of a market information system such as the one used in this country.

Translated by: A.M