Goal of the project
A sustainable impact and inclusive economic growth for Guatemalan small-scale vegetable growers in the Guatemalan highlands in which rural communities increase their access to income sources.Project number
FDOV14GT03Country
- Guatemala
Location
HighlandsSector
- Agriculture
- Sustainable vegetables
- Export
- Sustainable farming
Project budget
Partners
- Grupo Ceis
- Fair Fruit nvso
- ADISAGUA
- SENACYT
- Agexport
Project description
Unsustainable food crop production causes land degradation, environmental risks and low income and poor living standards for farmers in Guatemala. International markets demand high CSR standards that require investments at farmer level. Investments that farmers cannot afford to make. To overcome these problems in the productive sector for vegetables, especially string beans, green peas and Brussel’s cols, the partners in this project wish to use the FDOV-programme to lift the whole value chain to a sustainable level, meaning increasing the number of sustainable farmers, increasing the productivity per hectare and increasing the number of hectares that are being used for sustainable farming. The market for sustainable vegetables in the US and Europe is growing and Guatemala acknowledges the need for more sustainable production.
Grupo Ceis in Guatemala and Fair Fruit in Belgium both belong to Durabilis, which is a Belgium Impact Investment Company. Durabilis invests and manages agribusiness value chains to stimulate sustainable development in South America and Africa. The companies work as intermediaries between producer and market: Grupo Ceis buys the products in Guatemala from the farmers and Fair Fruit is the importer and distributor in Europe. They work with low margins so producers receive better prices.
The project however will not only focus on the contracted farmers for supply to Grupo Ceis and Fair Fruit, but will also increase awareness about sustainable production amongst the bigger exporters in Guatemala and customers in Europe. Therefore the three NGOs in the consortium will support the project with technical assistance to increase quality and quantity of the targeted vegetables and to educate the value chain as a whole.