Storage plant for exports

The plant will be managed by the U.S.company Gulf Coast Produce, and will be located in the loading section of the Tocumen International Airport. It will have an area of 3,000 square meters and be able to store up to 80 million kilograms of perishable produce a year.

Although the plant has not yet started operations, Gulf Coast has already received requests for its services from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as well as from Chiriqui’s vegetable producers.

Alfredo Mejía-Aoun, who is the liaison between the company and the Panamanian government said that the project so far has received the approval of the Board of Directors of Tocumen S.A. and they are about to start the environmental impact studies, the last phase before construction of the plant begins.

A similar kind of storage facility has already been constructed at the Mississippi International Airport, which is waiting for its Panamanian counterpart to begin operations.

In total the U.S.company will invest around $30 million, five of which will be spent in Panama.

It is expected that the project will create 200 jobs.

The aim of the project is to encourage Panamanian farmers to grow products that are in high demand in the United States to be shipped directly from Panama to the Mississippi Airport, which will save time, and keep the produce fresher.

The plant will pack the products and will classify perishable produce in different categories such a vegetable, fish and meat.

Mejia-Aoun said that the new plant could be opened before the end of the year and they already have 120 trucks ready to start operations.

In April, the company will create a cargo airline that will fly the produce to the United States.

A source close to Tocumen S.A. confirms that the project has been approved by the the Board of Directors and the blueprints, are currently being checked.

The plot is being measured and the construction details finalized before the plant is allowed to be built.

Gulf Coast Produce is a company from Mississipi, which is dedicated to processing fresh perishable products and distributing them all over the United States.

The project will put Panama on the map once again as a center of storage for other countries in the region that do not have the facilities that the new plant will offer.

It will allowing those countries to market their products more efficiently in the U.S.