Law 555, published in Official Gazette No. 30624 on October 1, 2026, creates the Sugarcane Mill Route (Ruta del Trapiche). Bill 287 of 2025 —sponsored by deputies Medin Jiménez Pitti, Julio de la Guardia Arrocha and Yesica Romero García— was approved on third debate on August 19, 2026 and signed into law by President José Raúl Mulino Quintero.

Its article 1 creates the route as a tourism, cultural and gastronomic circuit across the regions that produce panela (raspadura) and its derivatives, in recognition of the rural men and women of the countryside. Article 4 assigns its implementation to the Authority of Tourism of Panama, in coordination with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Agricultural Development; article 5 defines its components: production centers with artisanal demonstrations, museums and interpretation spaces, gastronomic fairs and festivals, direct sales points and training workshops. Article 8 creates a National Advisory Commission chaired by the Ministry of Agricultural Development.

Article 3 identifies the beneficiaries as panela and derivative producers, the communities along the route, local tour operators and visitors. For those producers, article 6 concentrates the economic component: training and technical assistance from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agricultural Development; access to financing and subsidies through the National Bank, the Caja de Ahorros, the Agricultural Development Bank, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (AMPYME) and the Special Interest Compensation Fund (FECI); partial tax exemptions to modernize production and marketing; and greater flexibility in sanitary registrations so that small producers can sell inside and outside the country. A circuit of this kind usually also opens up activity for lodging, transport and local tourism services, although the law neither regulates nor mentions them: that expansion would depend on demand and on the regulations.

The effect is not immediate. Article 11 orders the Executive Branch to issue the regulations within a maximum of six months, and article 12 defers the law's entry into force to those same six months from promulgation; the use of the name 'Ruta del Trapiche' will also be subject to authorization from the Authority of Tourism, the Ministry of Agricultural Development and the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (article 7). Until regulations exist, the incentives in article 6 are not operative.

Nexo Capital will follow the regulations and the entry into force of Law 555.