Trade infrastructure

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, August-Sept, 2002

To function as the trade focal point of the Americas takes more than an efficient seaport and well-connected airport. It also requires a complex support system, everything from huge warehousing capabilities and expertise in freight forwarding to vast databases of trade leads and organizations that coordinate trade missions.

If you travel west of the City of Miami and stand at the intersection of NW 107th Avenue and NW 41st Street in the western part of Miami-Dade County, you can see something which is the last of its kind: an open field, complete with cows, in the heart of what is now known as the Airport/West real estate market. The cows are there, contentedly chewing on 182 acres of grass, only because the will of deceased land owner Charles B. Lemon forbids his descendants from ever developing the property.

"There are no other cows out here, believe me," says Ed Easton, Sr. "There is very little open land remaining, perhaps a hundred acres."

Easton would know. As the president and CEO of The Easton Group, he controls the largest single industrial park in the area - International Corporate Park - which has 4.1 million square feet of buildings within its well-manicured boundaries.

Overall, the Airport/West sub market has 43 million square feet of industrial space. At $50 a square foot in value, that's $2.15 billion worth of property, almost all of it dedicated to international trade. "The airport and seaport are what drives everything," says Easton, "but you couldn't handle that without this infrastructure."

The clients of International Corporate Park are a revealing cross section of the kinds of companies which service the Americas - names like FedEx, Circle Freight, Expeditors, Union Transport, Sony, Canon and the parts suppliers for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Most function as freight forwarders, with the area acting as a giant storage, sorting, processing and shipping center. In all, according to a survey taken by the Doral-Airport West Chamber of Commerce, there are more than 10,000 businesses with more than 125,000 employees located in the area.

While this vast army is a vital component of the trade infrastructure of Greater Miami, it is only one - albeit the largest - component in the mix of Miami-based services and institutions which facilitate trade with the Americas. Others include the World Trade Center Miami, Enterprise Florida, the Florida Foreign Trade Association, the Association of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce, the Florida Custom Brokers & Forwarders Association and a slew of foreign trade offices. All support trade through an array of high-tech linkages, trade missions and programs for importers and exporters hemisphere wide.

Similar to other World Trade Centers worldwide, the WTC Miami offers its membership such services as the Trade Opportunities Database, an electronic bulletin board where members post offers to buy and sell products and services. But WTC Miami goes further with its focus on the Americas, including reports on the best markets for key products, industry sector reports and country commercial guides. Databases include Guia Externa, the largest comprehensive source of Argentine and Brazilian companies doing business internationally, and a data directory of 22,000 importing firms in Latin America.

All together, the WTC Miami has 700 members, many of which are companies located in Latin America. "If you include the Latin nations of North America - the Central Americans and Mexicans - then 40 percent of the membership is from Latin America," says WTC Miami president Charlotte Gallogly. "When it comes to South and Central America, the WTC Miami is a dominant clearinghouse for trade data and leads."

The WTC Miami also hosts some of the biggest trade shows for hemispheric commerce. This year it will host both the Sea Cargo Americas show and the Americas Food & Beverage show, with attendance expected to reach 6,000 and 9,000 respectively Last year's Air Cargo of the Americas had 4,500 delegates and buyers, more than 180 participating companies and 225 booths, including those exhibited by airports and airlines. Last year's Americas Food & Beverage show was even larger, with 6,200 delegates and buyers, and exhibitors from 25 nations. The estimated sales that resulted from that show: more than $500 million.

"The World Trade Center Miami is recognized among the WTC Association and the WTC worldwide as being one of the most active in trade services and in creating trade opportunities through our trade shows," says Ana Maria Fernandez Haar, the current Chairman of the WTC Miami. "We generate sales in those shows."

The Florida Foreign Trade Association (FFTA), on the other hand, is a networking organization that was formed in 1985 to launch outgoing and incoming trade missions for customs brokers, freight forwarders, air and sea transportation professionals, lawyers, insurance agents and trade financiers. This year, for example, the association--with 200 permanent and 14,000 associate members--has sponsored incoming missions from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.