AMP Fruits and Vegetable Conference and Exhibition

Good morning, thank you for inviting me. Also, I would like to say that USAID is a co-sponsor, one of several sponsors, of this conference.  And also a sponsor of Agricultural Marketing Project. Five years ago, when my colleagues were designing a project for agricultural support, we identified the fruits and vegetables area as the area that USAID should focus on.   It had great potential for several reasons, one is that it was relatively untapped, and the second one is - looking at the entire agricultural sector, it was, probably, the sub-sector of the agriculture that had the least government interference.   And what this project has shown, and what all of your actions have proved is that a market approach to agriculture is the one that will generate the most growth. Let’s look at the results: over the last five years, there has been a continuous 20% growth in the fruits and vegetables sub-sector, continuously over the last five years. Our experts estimated the value of fruits and vegetables per year roughly at $ 2 billion, and, perhaps, within the next 4-5 years, it could double to $4 billion. This is a great success and it will continue to be a success, even when USAID support ends.   We have a proven model of the success and what we hope is that this model, this market approach can be applied to the other sub-sectors of the agriculture sector. And we wish you success.  Thank you.