Colombia: Private Sector Partners Helping Farmers Bring Products to Market

Colombia: Private Sector Partners Helping Farmers Bring Products to Market

The farmers in the isolated region of Montes de Maria in northern Colombia face numerous economic challenges. One of the biggest obstacles that agricultural producers face is marketing their products and reaching consumers. To help producers overcome this challenge, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has initiated a project that links producers to private sector partners
Global Communities is supporting this initiative though the USAID-funded Colombia Responde program. Through Colombia Responde,Global Communities has helped create four new partnerships between 189 farmers and commercial businesses in the municipalities of El Carmen, San Jacinto and San Onofre. These farmers are producing a variety of products including avocados, cocoa, mangoes, meat and milk.
Through these new partnerships, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is providing technical assistance and inputs to the farmer to help them improve their production techniques and the quality of their products. The commercial companies are supporting the project by providing marketing assistance to help ensure sustainability and profitability. In San Jacinto, for example, a national beverage company has invested its own funds to support the mango producers and has committed to purchase the mangoes they produce for the next 20 years. In total, the investments of the four partnerships is valued at more than $2 million.
Sofanor Amor Mendoza, President of the Palo Alto Producers Association says the partnerships are creating beneficial results. Producers are receiving technical monitoring and guidance that they lacked before. One of the biggest outcomes, Mendoza feels, is the trust being built between the partners. “Producers accepted the institutional support and this has increased trust. In the past, a project was started, but then abandoned. Now, we get support and guidance. Organizations do what they promise to do.”