Top agricultural and dairy industry bodies have announced deepened collaboration to drive a more competitive, environmentally resilient dairy sector across Latin America and the Caribbean, following a high-level technical gathering hosted at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) headquarters in San José, Costa Rica.
The meeting brought together IICA Director General Muhammad Ibrahim and Ariel Londinsky, Secretary General of the Pan-American Dairy Federation (FEPALE), to assess the progress of existing joint projects and map out new avenues for regional alignment in the dairy space. A core focus of the talks was advancing the Regional Sustainable Development Agenda for the Dairy Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, a cross-institutional initiative already backed by FEPALE, IICA, CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the global Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF).
This collaborative program targets stronger regional coordination across key priorities for the dairy industry: boosting productive sustainability, building climate resilience, strengthening institutional capacity, and expanding technical knowledge sharing. It also leverages the standardized DSF methodology to align efforts and systematically track progress across participating nations and stakeholders.
Beyond the regional sustainability agenda, participants discussed the critical role IICA could play in supporting the rollout of the landmark Mercosur-European Union Association Agreement, specifically focusing on core dairy-related provisions. These include managing export and import tariff rate quotas, aligning sanitary and phytosanitary standards, expanding equitable market access, and harmonizing regulations governing protected denominations of origin.
Upgrading the quality and accessibility of reliable industry data was also flagged as a urgent collective priority. The two organizations committed to expanding joint work between FEPALE’s specialized Dairy Sector Observatory and IICA’s Observatory of Public Policies for Agrifood Systems (OPSAa). The partnership will strengthen systematic data collection processes and generate more actionable, strategic data to inform evidence-based policymaking, ongoing sector monitoring, and critical business decision-making across the region.
Officials also explored opportunities to align ongoing initiatives with the Southern Agricultural Council and IICA’s network of national country offices, with the goal of advancing a cohesive regional strategy centered on three pillars: accelerating technological innovation, driving inclusive territorial development, and building more sustainable end-to-end dairy value chains.
Looking ahead to the next phase of partnership, the two institutions have scheduled a High-Level IICA–FEPALE–CAF Technical Discussion Forum to be held in the final quarter of this year. The gathering will bring together key stakeholders to unpack emerging opportunities and persistent challenges facing the sustainable transformation of the regional dairy industry.
Longer-term planning also confirmed continued collaboration ahead of the 7th Pan-American Meeting of Young Dairy Farmers, set to be hosted in Chile in 2027. The event prioritizes nurturing youth leadership in the sector, facilitating generational knowledge transfer, and spurring greater innovation in small and large-scale dairy production systems across the Americas.
In a closing highlight, meeting participants identified an opportunity to amplify regional voices on global sustainability platforms, discussing plans to engage a broad cohort of regional dairy stakeholders in the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) set to take place in Türkiye. Participants framed the global summit as a critical platform to demonstrate Latin America and the Caribbean’s collective commitment to integrating sustainability, ambitious climate action, and food security across the dairy sector.
The high-level meeting concluded with both institutions formally reaffirming their shared commitment to expanding targeted technical cooperation, and advancing the long-term goals of boosting competitiveness, embedding sustainable practices, and deepening global integration for the dairy industry across the Americas.