F2F Guatemala and Dominican Republic: Connecting people throughout the continent

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The Farmer-to-Farmer program provides technical assistance to farmers, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, associations, universities, and private enterprises around the world. Since 2014, the Guatemala field office, under Partners of the Americas, has fielded more than 150 volunteers to work in its Rural Enterprise Development and High-Value Horticulture strategies. Yogi Super Foods is one of the many businesses that has received support. 



In 2014, Marco Barbi began to prepare Kombucha at home and shared it with his friends. Later, he developed recipes and packaging for this and other products, expanding his offer. As a result, he founded “Yogi Super Foods (YSF)”. "Super Foods" is a popularized term that refers to foods that can have health-promoting properties such as reducing one's risk of disease or improving any aspect of physical or emotional health. They tend to have an unusually high content of antioxidants, vitamins, or other nutrients, and are packaged without chemicals or preservatives. So far, YSF has received more than 15 F2F volunteers since October 2017. All this support and experience has made YSF a successful company in Guatemala, to the extent that they are now selling online nationally and internationally. 

During the current COVID-19 quarantine, Natural Hispaniola, a family business in the Dominican Republic that focuses on the production of value-added products from cacao, reached out to the F2F office to request technical support from US experts. Natural Hispaniola is currently facing challenges in all its processes, including production, harvest, post-harvest, packaging, and marketing.  

For Partners of the Americas, one of the goals is to connect organizations, cooperatives, farmers, and private enterprises to each other and in this way strengthen them. Our mission is to “Connect, serve and change lives around the globe through lasting partnerships”. Additionally, through the F2F Program, we have learned that many farmers and entrepreneurs face similar challenges in developing countries. 
Therefore, both the Guatemala and Dominican Republic country offices made the decision to connect both businesses and help them by sharing anecdotes and resources. In May 2020, YSF began sharing their experience with Natural Hispaniola through video calls to provide guidance, feedback, and general support. This is the first time for the F2F Program in Latin America and the Caribbean that a host trains another host. Collaboration between hosts and partners is essential, not only to create lasting relationships but also to share advice and best practices on how to get a business running.  

Even though both family businesses were founded in 2014, YSF has grown more than Natural Hispaniola, in part due to the assistance received from programs like F2F. Some of the topics discussed in the first meeting were their commitment to environmental and zero-waste philosophies, preferring local suppliers vs. international ones, marketing strategies focused on local stores, social media use, and the pros and cons of developing a wide variety of products.  

“The first time we hosted a volunteer I didn't know how to work with them and I remember telling my former wife that it was time-consuming, and the results were not observable right away. Then I learned that the support that F2F provides us is invaluable, so I started to implement the recommendations immediately; sometimes before the volunteer left the country. Part of the YSF success is due to F2F's support in the last two years.” -Marco Barbi, YSF's CEO. 

Both country field offices are happy to bring together hosts around the world and allow them to connect and learn from each other. This is what we work for. 

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