The all-day conference at the UCLA campus brought together Mexican and California experts from the agriculture, banking and academic communities, as well as influential policymakers, to discuss the leading issues affecting U.S. investment in Mexican agriculture. Yet for many firms the perceived risks of investing in Mexican agriculture outweigh the perceived benefits.
Opportunities abound but are left unexplored.
The NAID Center and the Bank of America decided that it was time to facilitate an informed discussion on the opportunities and barriers for U.S. investment in Mexican agriculture. Specific recommendations are made for involving the small farm sector in viable bi-national joint ventures. Due to delays in issuing the conference proceedings, a number of policy recommendations and comments by speakers have been rendered moot by the passage of time. Some of these changes were no doubt influenced by this conference and similar discussions that have occurred, while others, such as a changing macroeconomic environment, have responded to broader policy changes. For example, in this report, policy recommendation five under Finance states that Mexico lacks a functioning credit bureau.