Popoyan export award

Guatemalan fruit and vegetable producer-exporter Agropecuaria Popoyán has received The Best Exporter of the Year 2010 award – the highest export honour in the Central American country.

The gong was awarded by the country’s export association (Agexport) on Thursday 30 September in recognition of Popoyán 30 years’ service to the Guatemalan produce business.

“This is a great motivation and welook forward to continuing the excellent work,” said general manager Francisco Viteri.

Popoyán exports around 15 containers of fruits and vegetables each week destinted for markets around the world including the US, the Netherlands, Spain, the Caribbean, Canada and Central America.

The group mainly produces tomatoes, peppers and pineapples and is well known with the Guatemalan fresh produce industry for its quality approach and innovative style.

Indeed, Popoyán’s Mr Viteri was one of the key players in the opening up of the US market to Guatemalan tomatoes in 2007.

Since its establishment in 1977, Popoyán has sought to continually access new markets and introduce the application of technology (such as greenhouses) from Israel and the Netherlands.

Currently, the company is in the middle of a new cucumber project and aims to trial exports this year.