ANAPDE Thanks the Farmer-to-Farmer Guatemala Program

Like many countries, Guatemala has been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate effects have been more severe on perishable products such as deciduous fruits, which are mostly produced by smallholder farmers in the Western highlands of Guatemala. Several Farmer-to-Farmer hosts have implemented different actions and measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on small producers and at the same time facilitate their access to markets. 

This is the case of the National Association of Deciduous Producers (ANAPDE) that, given the uncertainty and restrictions of many of their associates to the local and regional markets, decided to host the first virtual peach fair in August 2020. The focus was on the Salcajá variety of peach because it was bred in the region in the late 1960s, and nowadays is being recognized internationally for its quality. There were several activities such as virtual orchard tours, online cooking classes, webinars, and cultural tours. In the online market, they also sold jams, jellies, fresh fruits, and different peach and apple byproducts.

Thanks to the organization and support of several F2F volunteers since 2015, the association was better prepared to facilitate the access of producers to the different markets. For example, the last volunteer they received, Dr. Mohamed Abdel Rahman, was in the field during the first peach fair and carried out an assignment on controlled atmospheres and postharvest technologies of horticultural crops. Therefore, by the 2020 peach season, growers had already implemented the volunteer recommendations and improved their postharvest handling of the fruit. Additionally, the association had put into practice the guidelines on maturity and ripening to prolong the shelf life that Dr. Rahman had indicated.

Although consumer demand and behavior have changed, ANAPDE's sales have increased by 3% and at the same time, they have reduced losses through proper handling and delivery of fruit on time. The mobilization restrictions did not prevent their production from being affected, but ANAPDE took this as an opportunity to improve not only the quality of their fruit for exporting but also their agricultural practices in the peach and apple orchards.

There have been more than ten F2F volunteers who have supported the association since 2015 and have helped them fulfill its mission and vision of "producing the best national and international deciduous fruit with export quality" and "getting to be the largest fruit grower association nationwide"

The Farmer-to-Farmer program in Guatemala is very happy to see that host associations such as ANAPDE recognize the contribution of our volunteers. In the video above you can see Armando Hernández, ANAPDE’s manager, saying: “We are very grateful to the F2F program for the assistance provided since 2015 in very specific issues of fruit trees. Thank you very much to all the volunteers, the doors to our hearts and to our country are always open."

F2F Volunteer Mohamed Rahman during his assignment with ANAPDE in August 2019.