Nearly 36 medium-sized and small avocado producers in the Carazo department are about to launch an agricultural enterprise that manufactures and exports guacamole and virgin avocado oil to the United States.
Due to the decay of coffee production in Carazo, many of the producers who were previously engaged in trading this fruit have had to find an alternative to work their land.
According to Marthan Arevalo, the president of the Avocado Producers Association of Nicaragua, the avocado is a very rich and healthy fruit that has managed to penetrate both the departmental and national markets.
Arevalo is the owner of the Mirazul del Llano farm, which is located about five kilometers from the city of Jinotepe and that has more than 1,500 adult avocado trees and a thousand trees that are still in the nursery.
"An avocado tree yields its first harvest four years after being planted. In its first harvest it can produce about 500 avocados, but in its next crop a single tree can give more than a thousand fruits. Each avocado is sold for between ten and fifteen cordobas to wholesale buyers," Arevalo said.
Exports
Carlos Coronel, the Vice President of the Association of Avocado Producers from Nicaragua, said that initially there was only one producer of avocado but that today there are more than a hundred producers in the country, 36 of which are associated with the Coopranic cooperative.
Coronel said that the cooperative had participated in a farmers' competition in the Netherlands a year ago, where they presented an avocado export project, which was ranked 49th place and won money that served to build an agricultural industry.
"We gain nothing from being the best producers if we do not sell our product. We have to be an agricultural business, we already have 95% of the facilities and the machinery, and in a few weeks we will start producing," said the vice president of Coopranic.
He also said that, as a cooperative, they wanted to sell their product per pound and not per unit, as it gives more value to the product and producers would know how many pounds they sold and the agribusiness how many pounds of avocado they bought.
This company will produce two products: a chemical-free, natural guacamole and a virgin avocado oil, which will be bottled with its own brand.
Sustainable Development
According to Octavio Ambrogi, the general manager of the Avocado Producers Association of Nicaragua, they have developed a tourist route to avocado and promote sustainable development through agricultural reforestation.
In addition, they also promote alliances between cooperatives and other types of organizations, teaching them how to improve production techniques through a comprehensive training program at all levels.
"We do not charge a single peso to the people, we teach them how to plant, the techniques, and the type of insecticides that they must use not to damage the plant and the fruit. In addition we offer employment to the community and self-employment to the cooperative. We know that we are producing a high quality material," concluded Ambrogi.
Source: elnuevodiario.com