Law 82 of 31st December 2009 regulates the Certificates for Development of Agricultural Exports (CEFA in Spanish) and initially was limited to non-traditional agricultural exports, including about 230 products or their derivatives such as tomatos, salsa, yuca, squashes , palm oil, pepper, alcohol, meat, coconut, chicken, candy, jam, ginger, juice, marmalade, and milk, among other things.

The new proposal includes in the list farmed shrimp, chicken legs, sausages, and corn muffin, some of the over 60 derivatives. This increase in the CEFA program coverage will be presented to the Cabinet for approval in a month , said the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ricardo Quijano,

From 2010 to date, the program has disbursed $19.1 million to exporters, with fruit and meat products being the most favoured categories, reported Capital.com.pa.

However, a serious drawback to this benefit is the long bureaucratic process. The head of the Exporters Association of Panama (Apex), Maximo Garcia, said that some exporters have given up on claiming the benefit due to excessive paperwork, the complexity of the process and delays in receiving it, but have called the extension of CEFA "excellent".

Source: Capital.com.pa

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