Morelia, Michoacán (MiMorelia.com).- Faced with the threat posed by the imposition of tariffs by the United States, Mexico and Michoacán must invest in science and technology to strengthen their production chains, add value to their agricultural products and make better use of the domestic market, said Carlos Sosa Aguirre, Biotechnology Coordinator of the Center for Innovation and Agri-Food Development of Michoacán (CIDAM).

Although he acknowledged that initially the imposition of tariffs could have a direct negative impact on the competitiveness of prices of Michoacan products, especially those that are exported mainly to the United States, such as avocados and berries, the opportunity and great challenge of becoming more efficient is opening up.

"That is where the Michoacana University, CIDAM, national and local research centers play a very important role in this challenge. What is it? We are effectively losing competitiveness in terms of prices and we have to remedy this competitiveness by being more efficient in production, more competitive in quality and providing other benefits in addition to the obvious ones, which are supply and price," he said.

The response that Mexico and Michoacán must give to these threats is to "become more competitive," more efficient in the use of products and better organized in production chains. To do so, it is essential to strengthen internal unity and invest in biotechnology and the development of agroindustry, he said.

"This creates significant challenges, but in the long run I believe this will greatly strengthen the infrastructure and the transformation capabilities of the state, which will greatly strengthen us because this will last for a while, a period of time, how long? We don't know, we don't even know if it will happen permanently [...] and so we will have to strengthen in this way, being more competitive to reduce our costs locally and then correct that overpricing that exists against our competitors," he said.

He gave examples of two actions that have been carried out by CIDAM for months: if berry producers can add value to their losses, which range between 10 and 15 percent, they would have extra income to better cope with the imposition of tariffs if they were to materialize.

He also explained that CIDAM has been working on a formula to nutritionally enrich tortillas using products such as cactus and reduce the cost of the product; this could also be an option for producers who depend on corn imports from the United States, either for livestock feed or for human consumption.

For this reason, he said, it is essential that the academy, the agro-industrial sector and government authorities work together and in a coordinated manner to develop projects that benefit the entire production chain. For now, he said that they are already working on the construction of a processing plant that will allow adding value to Michoacan products and in which the UMSNH, CIDAM and the state government are participating.

"I was telling you that CIDAM was going to put up a transformative fund with the support of the state government and the University (Michoacana) itself. This seems to be going to happen in March and we are very excited because this would be one of the tangible responses to solve these challenges that are coming our way due to these new geopolitical expectations that are occurring on the planet," he added.