TRADE AND MARKET I NG Famous Chuño provides Peruvian growers with better income A t the end of May, together with his wife Alejandrina, potato grower Eusebio Quito is busy harvesting their 5 hectares of indigenous potatoes. He tells us that the potatoes have a lot to endure during the hot days and the cold nights, although he emphasises that cold nights are good for encouraging the potatoes to keep growing. He also says that the black mountain soil is difficult to cultivate. It contains little organic matter and is also full of stones, which makes mechanised farming very difficult. And the Quito family hasn’t got the money to do that anyway. The growers in the high mountains of Peru are often very poor. To create a future for the growers in these poorer areas, Triassic has been present in the Latin America countries of Peru, Ecuador and Brazil since the nineteen nineties. According to Lieve Van Elsen, who lives in Ecuador as the local Trias director, the Belgian organisation also wants to help young growers to find a source of income in rural areas. ‘Otherwise, the young people prefer to leave for the city, where there are more jobs’, explains Van Elsen. ‘We want to teach the growers more entrepreneurship and support them technically and financially. But the growers also have to make a contribution themselves. For example, as Trias, we support them with making an annual plan. We also help them in the growing season with the technical realisation of projects and marketing. In addition, we support youngsters and women in the community and we promote and represent their interests to the national authorities. Since we are partly financed by the Belgian government, we also control the flow of funds. It all has to be properly run’, the Latin America specialist explains enthusiastically. Quito adds that the collaboration with Trias within Coopagros has benefited him a lot. His family has even been able to buy their own second-hand car. ‘If we improve the income of the farmers in the cooperative, it can continue to do its job. Support is needed in the start-up phase, but the aim is for the cooperative to operate independently. This is not only about growing and selling the potatoes This project doesn’t only work out well for Eusebio Quito and his wife Alejandrina, but the potato also benefits. The black soil in the high mountains is difficult to cultivate and produces on average 16 to 18 tons of papas nativas per hectare. German (l) and Leoncio Pichikua Quito now supply the Chuño of Coopagros to their customers with a certificate. 14 Potato World 2019 • number 1 Pagina 13
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