Mexico has forests, and a delegation of forestry specialists was in Prince George from south of the Rio Grande to learn from local expertise.

"They came here for the know-how this region represents," said Ernest Daddey, executive director of the Innovation Central Society, one of the agencies that participated in the visit. "A delegation of local companies presented their capabilities to the delegation of forestry interests from Mexico."

Daddey said the learning went both ways. The Mexicans were learning mostly about how to use biomass - the woody debris left over from logging and milling that is now being used in the pellet industry to make energy from the waste.

The delegates were from the Durango and the Chihuahua regions of Mexico.

"They came here because British Columbia and Prince George represented the answers for the solutions they were looking for," Daddey said. "This place was recognized in Mexico as the centre of the bioenergy universe, so they came here to learn and begin relationships that might turn into partnerships in the future."

Mexico poses certain opportunities in return, for northern B.C. forestry firms and others involved in large-scale exporting, said Daddey.

For example, shipping goods from B.C. to Europe, West Africa or West Asia requires a long overland trip to an eastern port, or ocean freighters travelling from the west coast down through the Panama Canal at the southern end of the continent, or shipping the cargo through Canada's Northwest Passage in the far north. Mexico, however, has easy-access ports on both the east and west coasts of their geographically narrower nation. Goods need only be sent by truck or rail to a distribution facility then routed in either direction by sea.