Port Manatee advances trade initiative with Honduras

The U.S. Gulf Coast port is advancing a trade initiative with Honduras following its participation in Enterprise Florida’s export sales mission to Tegucigalpa, Honduras earlier this month.    Port Manatee is advancing a trade initiative with Honduras following its participation in Enterprise Florida’s export sales mission to Tegucigalpa, Honduras Dec. 1 through Dec. 3, the port said.
   The mission was led by Florida Commerce Secretary Bill Johnson, who also serves as President and CEO of Enterprise Florida, the economic development arm of the state.
   Honduran officials discussed infrastructure progress in their country as well as opportunities for trade during the mission. In addition, Port Manatee’s Senior Director of Trade Development and Sales Matty Appice focused on discussing Port Manatee’s position as an “ideal” gateway to burgeoning consumer markets of Central Florida and Southeast Florida.
   “Florida accounted for 42.1 percent of total U.S. trade with Honduras in 2014, and the state’s total merchandise trade with Honduras is up 10.1 percent through the first six months of 2015,” Enterprise Florida said.
   “Honduras offers significant prospects for two-way trade which Port Manatee is ideally positioned to serve,” Appice said in a statement. “Honduras is already among Florida’s top 10 merchandise trading partners, and we see Port Manatee benefiting from an expansion of this already-fruitful relationship.”
   Situated in the eastern Gulf of Mexico at the entrance of Tampa Bay, Port Manatee serves bulk, breakbulk, container, heavylift, project and general cargo customers.