Colombia’s Amazon World Ecological Park: Marketing Aromatic Teas One Year After F2F Volunteer Visit

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In November of last year, Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer Matthias Resien had taken a trip to Leticia, Colombia to provide training to staff at the Amazon World Ecological Park regarding dehydration techniques for making teas, packaging them, and developing marketing strategies. The park, which opened in 2011 and is known for its sustainable use of biodiversity, has many different species of aromatic plants that have large potential in the tea market, particularly for tourists visiting the park. Matthias’s visit was essential in getting the business started by helping to build a drying structure at the park and showing how to blend different herbs for aromatic teas that will be sold.

Today, almost one year later, park staff are now selling tea to visitors and are in the process of expanding their market even more. They continue to make improvements to the drying house to adapt to local environmental conditions and create a stronger structure. In the future, they are looking into designing coloring books for children with pictures of plants found in the park that are important to the culture and development of the Amazon. These ideas and recommendations were spearheaded by Matthias’s visit, and will help improve the sustainability of the park so visitors can continue to enjoy it and protect the Amazon’s biodiversity for years to come.

The herb drying facility at the Amazon World Ecological Park before improvements were made
The facility after renovations


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