For those who don't know, ALA — which happens to mean "wing" — is the Spanish acronym for the Latin American Poultry Producers Association. It was founded in 1970 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange by representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Paraguay.
Faced with the onslaught represented by the American and European poultry industries, Latin America was weak and undeveloped at the time. Today, 50 years later, the picture is quite different, yes?
Until last year, Isidro Molfese was ALA's executive director. He guided the association with firm steps and led it on the path of consolidation with up to 25 Latin American poultry congresses.
Today, there is another leadership at ALA, that of Juana Galván, with whom I had a conversation in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, during the Central American Poultry Congress. I was pleasantly surprised at how this association is working.
In the first place, since last year ALA has had a base, which is Panama City. That location was well-thought. It is in a good hub in terms of communications. But now ALA works on other fronts. Galván, with experience in international organizations, told me about two projects in which it currently works. One of them is the poultry health emergencies drills, a project that will be announced in detail soon.
The other one is the technical cooperation agreement recently signed with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which will focus on four areas: animal health and food safety, biosecurity, environmental sustainability and international trade. These projects are going to be implemented within the member countries.
In addition, ALA is in the process of entering research projects with practical application in poultry production together with the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association (USPOULTRY), supervised by a joint committee.
Meanwhile, the Latin American Poultry Congress is developing a new image with the brand Ovum and reinventing itself for the next edition in Lima, Peru, which will serve as the basis for following congresses.
It goes without saying that Latin America is the only region in the world that has a poultry producers organization that holds a congress every two years. It's the only one! And that means a lot.
Undoubtedly, it is a wing (ALA) that flies and we hope it reaches very high so that it continues to represent the Latin American poultry producers with dignity. What do you think?
