Agro reception as a welcome to the new Agricultural Counselor for Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - Léontine Crisson.
This year’s farewell took place on December 15th and as an occasion to celebrate the good cooperation with public entities, NGOs, companies and knowledge centers of the agricultural sector in Colombia . LAN Bogota organised a reception also as an opportunity to welcome the new Agricultural Counselor - Léontine Crisson who for the next few years will be working to promote the Dutch agri-food sector in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The event was also accompanied by Andrés Santana, Agricultural Advisor and Nicolás González, Agricultural Officer, who complete the LAN team of the Netherlands Embassy in Bogotá.
These Agro event were a great opportunity to celebrate that the agricultural sector has been a special meeting point between Colombia and the Netherlands, as well as the possibility of strengthening links between the most important and representative players in this sector with the LAN team in Bogota. In the same way, this event was used to continue strengthening trade relations between Colombia and the Netherlands, as well as with the islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, with whom Colombia is a neighboring country. Year after year, the Netherlands continues to position itself as one of the main destinations for Colombian exports, where agricultural products play a paramount role, even in times of pandemic.
This has been possible due to the long history and great Dutch knowledge and expertise in the agricultural sector, but also for being recognized as the second largest exporter of agri-food products worldwide. This knowledge within the sector has allowed the Netherlands to build trust with its Colombian counterparts and to be able to develop projects, exchange knowledge and make this sector more sustainable, productive and inclusive.
Therefore, this event allowed LAN Bogota, like in times before COVID-19, to strengthen links with key contacts and to continue looking for synergies for the 2022 agenda. We are sure that in the coming years we will witness the narrowing of our bilateral relationship, as well as the Dutch contribution to rural development in this region.
In addition, these Agro event were an opportunity to celebrate the good collaboration with the Dutch NGO ICCO Cooperation, that has been present in Colombia for more than 30 years, contributing to rural development through productive linkages strategies and inclusive economic growth.
The Manq'a Gastronomy Schools in Bogotá and Cali have been an example of successful projects resulting from our collaboration, as well as the project that ended last month called “Rural Paz”, with which the strategy of Itinerant Schools of Gastronomy and Tourism was implemented in the southern departments of Nariño and Putumayo, highly affected by the armed conflict.
Now, LAN Bogota wanted to take advantage of this reception to celebrate the support of the Dutch Government to contribute to the improvement of food security in the department of Magdalena, through a Manq’a School of Gastronomy and Tourism. The implementation of this project will benefit both young people in a situation of economic and food vulnerability, as well as the populations previously affected by the armed conflict. Hence, the event “was also a special opportunity to reiterate the support of the Dutch Embassy in Colombia to achieve the Comprehensive Rural Reform agreed in the Peace Agreements, to fulfill the agreements with the regional Government of Magdalena and to contribute to make Colombian agriculture more circular and more sustainable” as stated by Ambassador Ernst Noorman.
In general, it was a space to celebrate the contacts acquired, the projects carried out and the initiatives developed since the opening of a Dutch agricultural office in Colombia in 2017. It was also an anticipated celebration of the important support that will be given to the Magdalena region.