Assisting Plantain Producers in Colombia's Valle del Cauca

In Colombia, the Farmer-to-Farmer program has partnered with CorpoValle, a non-profit, development agency, focused on planning, evaluating and implementing agricultural development projects in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca department. CorpoValle works with 54 smallholder agricultural associations, some of which have been particularly struck by violence, by strengthening their business and technical capabilities. They focus on nine fruit and vegetable value chains: lulo, blackberry, pineapple, citrus fruits, avocado, grape, guava, plantain, and chontaduro (peach palm fruit) and reach 1,700 fruit and vegetable growers in 29 municipalities, impacting 3,300 households or approximately 12,000 people.

So far, the Colombia program has completed eight volunteer assignments with 11 different associations under CorpoValle. One of the chosen volunteers was Luis Lopez, who supported Asoplayba, an association with 40 members that produce plantain of the Dominico Harton variety, located in the Trujillo municipality. They currently have a half-built production plant to vacuum seal plantains and produce plantain chips that eventually they want to export. Luis is the Vice President at Champlain Advisors, LLC in Washington DC and has a BBA, MBA with a concentration in Corporate Finance and a Certificate in Budget and Finance.

He spent two weeks in Colombia in November 2019 helping Asoplayba develop a formal business plan and giving them tools to improve their structure, bylaws, operations and financials. During the assignment, he met with members from the board of directors and wider members of the organization and visited four farms to better understand the reality farmers face. He also attended an Agricultural Festival in Tulua to get a better sense of the market and industry in the region and joined John McKenzie, another F2F volunteer working with a different plantain association, to analyze any overlapping situations, and constant challenges to be addressed.

At the end of his assignment he presented his findings and recommendations to Asoplayba’s general assembly, which included:

1. Consolidating accounts into one financial institution to develop banking relationships,
2. Developing bylaws for committees and amending current bylaws,
3. Creating an organizational chart to define roles, responsibilities, and leadership development of committee members,
4. Start tracking crops and costs to better monitor their actual production capacity,
5. Leverage their purchasing power to obtain better pricing, and
6. Use financial instruments that will assist them in the future when they are in a better financial position to expand and export, such as loan guarantees.

Luis really enjoyed his assignment: “Assisting Asoplayba has been—I hope—a mutually beneficial experience, as I was able to provide my input and leave them with multiple tools that will be of great impact for their organization’s growth and scale.

I have nothing but respect for the Asoplayba members as they are all small business owners in their own right and are able to work and expand their business in spite of problems. Just being on the field with them provides a unique perspective as to the daily challenges they face during a normal day of work; from inclinations to excessive rain, to plagues on their farm, the improvements needed in the infrastructure, and then preparing everything so the crops arrive in a timely manner and in great conditions to the point of sale.

I look forward to volunteering in the future again in this or another project. But most of all, I look forward to being in the loop of how things progress for Asoplayba.”