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This article is an example of small business opportunity in Panama. The marañón or cashew is from Brazil but grows well on dry soil in the center of Panama. The Gnaegi family owns and manages a small business processing and selling cashews and cashew by-products in Panama.

In Cocle Province, Panama a small company processes 400,000 pounds of cashews and cashew by-products for local sale and export. According to La Prensa, January 12, 2007 and the Panafrut website this Panama company processes cashews picked by approximately 500 families from trees growing wild in Panama’s heartland. This small business employs twenty full time employees to sort and process the cashews in addition to providing income for many poor families in rural Panama.
According to Panafrut’s web site the company “injects” about $150,000 a year into the Panama economy.

So how does a family turn nuts on wild trees into a small business? According the company web site the technology came from Brazil where the tree came from to Panama. There are two uses of cashews. The first is obvious. Salted cashews are delicious and can be packaged and sold. The other use is the extraction of an anti-corrosive chemical, anacardic acid (Cashew Nut Shell Liquid), from the shell. This natural product is likely to come into greater use as other, toxic, anti-corrosive agents are phased out due to environmental toxicity. Panama itself has a great need for anticorrosive paints and other materials with the amount of boat repair and maintenance that takes place here.

 Panama Residency, Panama Small Business, and Panama Small Scale Agriculture

Panama has become a hot spot for retirees with its easy residency requirements for pensioners. Panama also allows residency for investors. An investment of $160,000 and permanent employment of five Panamanian workers full time will give you ongoing residency. Another means of gaining residency is a reforestation visa. This entails a purchase of at least fifty acres and an investment of at least $80,000 in reforestation, typically with teak in return for a permanent visa.

Many expatriates come to Panama to take advantage of the positive business climate and to make a life for themselves.  The small Panama business mentioned above provides an example of what a little ingenuity can do. For the socially conscious we call your attention to the Panama family’s purchase of cashew nuts from local harvesters instead of planting a cashew tree farm. On the other hand perhaps reforestation with a nut or fruit growing tree, such as cashews, thus producing an orchard might provide a rewarding secondary small business as well as residency in Panama.

Another investor option tied to Panama commercial real estate is to provide rental space for small businesses in Panama. The country is growing economically and needs the investment to develop its infrastructure. Commercial real estate benefits from the fact that there are no rent controls on commercial real estate rentals in Panama unlike low end housing.

With Panama’s port and container shipping expansion there are opportunities to develop warehouse facilities, factories for parts assembly, communications hubs, and other infrastructure needs for a growing Panama.

Are you looking to relocate to Panama, retire here, or otherwise looking for visa possibilities? Are you interested in Panama real estate If so come to talk to us at ABPanama. We have over 23 years experience managing real estate portfolios and we do business throughout the country.