Strengthening infrastructure is a key piece of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s strategy to increase access to the U.S. market for regional farmers.
Connecting farmers to a larger market for their goods can help lift them out of poverty during a time when Central America is still reeling financially from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change is posing challenges for their productivity, according to CABEI Executive President Dante Mossi. But getting their goods to those markets also requires access to electricity and roads, as well as water and sanitation.
“If you don’t have one of those, you will never get out of poverty. At CABEI, we actually recognize that we are mostly an infrastructure bank. So we have been financing ports, airports, highways, customs offices everywhere, because the access is critical,” Mossi told Devex. “The logistics are very important.”