Marketing Guatemala's Treasure: Potatoes

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Michael Doherty, an Economist and Cooperative Advisor from Illinois, volunteered with the Farmer-to-Farmer program in Guatemala in October of 2019. He completed a Potato Marketing assignment with our host FENAPAPA (the National Potato Federation). FENAPAPA and its new marketing branch, the CODAM cooperative, were founded by a Guatemalan rural development non-profit called FundaSistemas.

FENAPAPA was founded in 2012 with the am of increasing the potato production of small landholders in the San Marcos district of the Western Highlands of Guatemala. FENAPAPA is overseen by an active five-member Board of Directors that represents the needs of 17 underlying farmer associations spread out across the mountains and valleys of the district.  

 

Historically, the potato production agribusiness in Guatemala has been passed on from generation to generation, and they have not had access to training or technical assistance that could help them improve their production outcomes. Now, FENAPAPA is trying to reach new markets, build more networks, and generate knowledge for their farmers.


FENAPAPA is in the first stage of initiating a new potato marketing venture, via the CODAM cooperative, to sell potatoes at a large volume, wholesale basis to both potato chip processing plants and fresh potato wholesalers in Guatemala City. On the supply side, FENAPAPA has been in communications with Potatoes USA, the national potato market promotional organization in the USA, about procuring new varieties of potatoes that these commercial buyers in Guatemala City want to purchase.

FENAPAPA/CODAM's plan is to: i) use their existing capital reserves to order a container of potato seeds from the US; ii) distribute the potato seeds to 70 key growers in their association; iii) provide those growers with technical assistance during the growing season; iv) collect the potatoes; v) sell them to the Guatemala City wholesalers and processors, and finally vi) return the earnings to those farmers. 


During the assignment, Michael supported FENAPA by developing a new Marketing Plan and by using their draft Business Plan as a platform for giving them a list of concrete recommendations that, if acted upon, would improve their business processes going into 2020 and reduce their financial risks in their new business venture as a marketing cooperative. Mr. Doherty also conducted a training session as part of the strategies that FENAPAPA wants to employ to improve the quality of the potatoes produced in the region and to analyze the necessary steps needed to create an origin seal. 


FENAPAPA's president and board of directors are extremely grateful for the support that the Farmer-to-Farmer program has provided them and expect to have new assignments in the future to carry on with the growth and improvement of San Marcos potato producers. Thanks to Michael Doherty's assignment, FENAPAPA can continue growing and providing better knowledge and market opportunities for their associates that can result in improvements in the quality of their products and the quality of their lives. 


As Angel Arango, president of FENAPAPA, said: “Potatoes are our treasure, Guatemala’s treasure”. 



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