Impact of free trade agreements on the dairy sector in Norte de Santander

Abstract

The flower industry is undoubtedly one of the most successful in the country. In just over 30 years, Colombian floriculture has gone from exporting a few thousand dollars a year to sell abroad more than 500 million dollars per year, generating about 182,000 jobs.Thus Colombia in the late sixties and early seventies found in floriculture good investment opportunity and therefore a promising future. This research was conducted to evaluate the ability of the Colombian flower industry, for which a thorough investigation of the current situation of the sector was conducted in order to recognize their strengths and weaknesses at the time of entering a market as competitive as the US and Japan. Colombian flowers are appreciated around the world for its beauty, freshness, quality and diversity that has allowed the national flower industry to strengthen and gain competitive advantages necessary to make known in the world market. There is a serious problem within the sector, almost absolute dependence on the United States, who as the main buyer of Colombian flowers, have a high bargaining power. The fall has been the dollar against the Colombian peso together with the crisis experienced in 2009, the sector has represented a significant loss of human capital and thus productivity. Therefore, it is necessary to start taking measures to strengthen the sector by seeking new opportunities to encourage both employers, as all workers who make a great contribution to developing and sustaining this economic activity.