During the 5th and 6th of March Dianne Van Essen and Linda Breukers visited the city of Barranquilla in Colombia.
Barranquilla, a city of more than 1,2 million people, is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city in the Caribbean coast region. Barranquilla lies strategically next to the delta of the Magdalena River, serving as a port for river and maritime transportation within Colombia and the Caribbean Sea.
During our visit, the investment promotion agency Pro Barranquilla organized meetings with very interesting parties like the Free Trade Zone La Cayena, just outside of Barranquilla. We also had meetings with the plastic recycler Polyrec, the Finish recycler Stani, and the construction company C7R.
Next to this, we met with the team of BEC CONSULTORES, who play an important role concerning the permission of a recycling plant and the conducting of other related studies, to get a better understanding of local recycling and construction markets.
During our meeting with the local waste collection company Triple A we had a chance to share our ideas about local plastic recycling and discuss the possibilities for collaboration.
Later at the municipality, we had the opportunity to meet with the Secretary of Economic Development, the Secretary of Infrastructure, and the team responsible for the Municipal Waste Management Plan which is currently being updated. During this meeting, an interesting discussion took place about the role the municipality could play in the FUSE recycling chain and the role they could play as buyers of our construction materials.
We ended this fruitful visit to Barranquilla with MUTA, a recycling company focusing on waste management technology and data.
Even though we are back in Curaçao, we will continue our market research in Barranquilla and hope to be back soon.
