PFID News

NICARAGUA UPDATE – EXCEEDING SALES TARGETS

PFID-F&V Nicaragua was recently able to increase the market sales of participating producers by US$ 10,429,069 in just six months time (April through September 2005), thereby exceeding its sales target of US$7,000,000 by nearly 50%.  Performance targets were also exceeded for local market access, alliances/contracts formed, employment generated, and number of farmers.  The cost/benefit ration sales generated in dollars/dollar of grant for agribusiness now stands at an impressive at 4.7:1.

During the last quarter alone, more than 3,800 beneficiary farmers adopted improved technologies (e.g.validated leading technologies to effectively compete in these markets, increase farmer’s productivity, and meet safety and quality standards demanded by the different targeted markets) and have accumulated experience from a previous crop cycle to effectively supply local, regional and export markets with quality fruits and vegetables.

Other noteworthy results in Nicaragua during recent months include the development of in-house capabilities to fully support company-level food safety assurance programs according to market standards. The results have been a remarkable improvement in the capacity of the private farmers and exporters to comply with food safety requirements in the local, regional and export markets, for example:

• El Verbo Model Farm was certified as an organic producer and exporter of organic hard squash to the U.S. market for the 2005 market window and is currently under the certification renewal process for the 2006 market window;
• EXPOTOSI, a plantain farmers’ marketing company, fully complies with SPS regulation to export to regional and the US markets;
• The PFID-F&V Nicaragua office provides free services in Nicaragua to register farmers, customs brokers, NGOs and exporters in the Bioterrorism Act regulations for the US market;
• PFID-F&V Nicaragua has trained inspectors in SPS regulations to provide needed services to Nicaraguan farmers.

In addition, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG-FOR) and the Ministry of Investment, Finance and Commerce(MIFIC), PFID-F&V sub-grantees IICA and INCAE provided expert assistance to the Nicaraguan Government and improved six agriculture products for export mainly to the DR-CAFTA countries. Furthermore, PFID’s specialized technical assistance informed the preparation of a variety of draft laws and procedures related to free trade implementation, including:

• A draft law for the DR-CAFTA implementation;
• A briefing for the Nicaraguan Congress on this law’s implications;
• A draft law to promote competitiveness;
• A draft law for Guarantees services for micro, small and medium size companies;
• A draft to modify the Customs law and customs procedures to improve trade under DR-CAFTA;
• A draft to update and modify Environmental legislation and procedures.

Finally, we should note that three of our Faith-Based organizational partners (CRS, WRC and LWR) worked on coffee initiatives to improve the quality of specialty coffees and diversify coffee farm income by promoting high value crops, mainly fruits and vegetables.  Their key accomplishments include:

• Exports of more than 111 containers of specialty coffees with a total value of $5.2 million during the 2004-2005 harvest.
• The coffee diversification sub-component promoted exports and sales for more than 200 containers of roots & tubers, oriental vegetables, cocoa and beans with a total value of more than $1.7 million.

PFID-F&V-Nicaragua’s achievement reports are based on strict data gathering mechanisms operated by a central database in the Nicaragua field office. Indicators are matched against work plans, and mapped in a GPS-based system designed for the specific action areas of the project. This database is an innovative way to demonstrate to USAID Nicaragua that the achievements of project activities can be corroborated through this mechanism.

Back