La Zarca y La Esperanza are certified with Business Alliance for Secure Commerce -BASC-

Guatemala, January 2010. On January the 5th, banana plantations of Agroamerica, La Zarca and La Esperanza, located in the departments of San Marcos and Quetzaltenango, respectively, were audited by personnel from Business Alliance for Secure Commerce-BASC-and the result was successful. Both plantations were certified BASC.

During the visit, the international auditors of BASC, Ligia Maria Lopez and Carlos Correa, visited the two plants and made a tour trough the different areas, reviewed procedures filed its application in daily practice questions to the staff and talked with managers from different departments such as Department of Safety and Human Resources.

To Agroamerica is very important to obtain such certifications because they are international business alliances that promote safe trade in cooperation with governments and international agencies.

The company believes necessary to promote safe international trade and that is why we worked to achieve this certification. Certification which promotes and supports the strengthening of security and safety standards in international trade and whose objectives are to encourage a culture of safety and security, establish and administering the system of control and security management in the logistics chain, working in coordination with governments and organizations, among others.

With this certification, these banana plantation of Agroamerica receive a number of competitive advantages and benefits, including:
Direct and permanent contact with agencies and national authorities and international cooperating with the program
It encourages foreign trade safely.
Increases and maintains international markets, facilitating the entry of domestic products to other countries.
Strengthen international credibility.
Encourages international cooperation to reduce the risk of legal loads used for illicit activities.
Streamlines processes and operations of foreign trade logistics chain.
Fosters a safe work environment.
Promotes standardization of procedures in the foreign trade chain.
Enhances productivity with security.

These results are due to effort and teamwork that made by the Agroamerica staff to obtain this certification, with the support of the General Manager. Several changes were made in plants to meet the requirements. Some of them were the installation of video cameras in critical areas of the packing plants (stowage, packaging, assembly of boxes, fumigation chambers, palletizing), several procedures were created Department of Homeland Security, Information Technology, Human Resources and the area operational and implemented, were purchased breathalyzers and apparatus for measuring the degree of drug addiction, among others.