Companies in Latin America, including multinationals with a regional presence, do more to fight poverty than governments, Techo, an organization with a $35 million annual budget that has mobilized 800,000 volunteers since it was founded  to help the Latin American poor, said. Read More »

The Colombian antitrust authority recently sanctioned Colombian sugar companies and industry groups after finding them guilty of creating a cartel to block imports of sugar from other regional countries. Read More »

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) introduced the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act to alter current prohibitions against U.S. backing and financing for certain exports to Cuba in the House. The Cuba agriculture market is valued at more than a $1 billion a year. Crawford said the a legislation would create innovative economic prospects and jobs for the U.S. agriculture industry. Read More »

Nobel Agril announced Marcelo de Andrade as its new global sugar president and Valmor Shaffer as its South America president. Both will be based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and report to CEO Matthew Jansen. Andrade has more than two decades of experience in the commodities sector. Previously, he was sugar and ethanol business director at Cargill, generating $270 million in revenue. Read More »

Jubilant DraxImage Inc. today announced the delivery of the first commercial shipment of HICON Sodium Iodine I-131 Solution USP to Colombia. HICON Sodium Iodine I-131 Solution is indicated for the treatment of thyroid diseases including hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Patients in Colombia who have thyroid conditions are now able to receive INVIMA-approved Radioiodine therapy. Read More »

Rollins has acquired a new franchise in El Salvador to offer customers pest control services through its wholly owned Orkin subsidiary. With locations in five other Latin America countries, this addition expands the company's presence in the region. Orkin employees in El Salvador will attend initial training in Atlanta and in Panama. Read More »

Sintana Energy said Thursday that drilling and casing on its Manati Blanco-1 exploration well in Colombia Block VMM-37 in the Magdalena Basin has reached a depth of approximately 14,500 feet. Further analyses will be performed to evaluate the potential of the block. Drilling on the well began in April and aimed at the La Luna and Tablazo/Paj Cretaceous-age oil formation. Read More »

Juan Carlos Varela, president of Panama, recently announced that the country will make a $1 billion (USD) investment on a 500 MW of utility-scale solar-energy and a $50 million world-class solar and environmental research center, which will be designed to focus on various research studies regarding photovoltaic (PV) innovation and environmental sciences. Read More »

Wilsonart Engineered Surfaces has announced an agreement with Maderas y Sinteticos (Masisa) to supply Masisa’s high pressure laminate (HPL) design line in Mexico, effective immediately. Read More »

Fitch Ratings has promoted Alejandro Garcia, its current managing director, to analytical head of Latin American financial institutions. Read More »

Arcadia Biosciences Inc. of Davis, California has entered into a joint venture with Bioceres S.A., Verdeca. Read More »

Brazilian vehicle sales, which have steadily declined in recent years, are projected to stabilize in the last quarter of the year, the country´s vehicle manufacturer association projected. While Anfavea, a Portuguese-language acronym for National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers, says numbers will remain low but not worsen, some dealerships expect improvement. Read More »

Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Campo Rico Fertilizers has secured additional equity funding of up to $40 million from agribusiness equity sponsor NGP Global Agribusiness Partners. “We look forward to working with this innovative and energetic team and are pleased to support their continued growth,” NGP Managing Director Mark Zenuk said. Read More »

The government of Venezuela, which for the past month has sought to intensify an initiative to increase crude oil prices by limiting production, said on Thursday that it will host a meeting on Oct. 21 in Caracas and is inviting all oil-producing countries, both inside and outside of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to participate. Read More »

At the second meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Mexico, the effects of an aging population, maternal mortality, migration and more on Latin America and the Caribbean were discussed on Wednesday. In particular, hot button issues covered the new changes in population and maternal and infant mortality. The conference is from Oct. 6 to Oct. 9. Read More »

The four years of economic deceleration in Latin America are already affecting Latin Americans' capacity to find or hold onto jobs as well as their income, according to Augusto de la Torre, chief economist of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean; while the region has already been posting worse-than-projected results for as many as five years, the job markets had remained for the most part unaffected in past years.  Read More »

Insteon, a provider of home-control network technology, announced a distribution partnership with Smartnex in Brazil. Insteon's applications include remote-control HVAC, timers, lighting, cameras, leak sensing, humidity sensing, occupancy sensing, and garage-door sensing and control. Users can control applications remotely from smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Read More »

Capstone Turbine Corporation recently announced that it has a received an order for a C600 microturbine that will be powering a gas compression station in Colombia, a microturbine able to operate in dual mode and independently of the grid, or with the grid in a load sharing capacity; it can also provide power to the compression 27/7 and is modular, meaning it can easily be expanded to accommodate a future expansion. Read More »

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced Wednesday that it will open W Punta de Mita in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. It will accommodate 120 guests who will be able to congregate in hotel-designed public spaces and enjoy Pacific Ocean views. The W Punta de Mita will be the second W property located in Mexico and an additional three more W hotels will also be opened throughout Latin America. Read More »

Amyris Inc. on Oct. 6 announced that the manufacturing of its third product produced this year at its industrial scale fermentation facility in Brotas, Brazil, is almost finished; the product represents the second critical fragrance ingredient successfully developed and produced at industrial scale for an Amyris collaboration partner, and the company is optimistic about its future. Read More »