Fintrac Client Farmer Gives Jobs, Hope to a Struggling Community

Comayagua, Honduras (February 7, 2003) - In the center of Honduras, in the Comayagua valley, ten miles down dirt roads off the main highway linking the Pacific and Caribbean coasts is a new packhouse facility built by Javier Suazo that is providing jobs to an economically struggling community. It is seven in the evening and already pitch black, but 23 newly employed residents of surrounding communities are busy washing, waxing, and packing top quality cucumbers for export to markets thousands of miles away. The packhouse lights illuminate the edges of the owner's fields that surround it, and which employ an additional 60 workers during the day. But tonight, Javier Suazo is packing cucumbers from one of four small outgrowers that he found last year and who wanted to be part of his plan for rebuilding his community.

Cucumber is a major export crop for Honduras during the winter season from January to April. It is a crop that is grown by producers of all sizes, from those with more than 400 hectares to those with just several hectares. The smaller ones typically grow and sell under contract to the larger producers who export directly to importers overseas. In 2000, with Fintrac assistance under its CDA Program in Honduras, one medium-sized grower/exporter started operations shipping 14 containers in 2001, 24 containers in 2002, and more than 50 containers this season. Fintrac saw room for other medium-sized farmers to enter the export market, but was waiting for the right person to step forward. Along came Javier Suazo.

Javier Suazo used to manage production operations for a large exporter of cucumbers. The exporter decided to get out of cucumber production, leaving him and many of his co-workers unemployed. Mr. Suazo, utilizing 5 hectares of his own land, started growing under Fintrac's outgrower jalapeno pepper program, installing recommended drip irrigation systems and adopting Fintrac recommended good agricultural practices. He had weekly visits from a Fintrac field agronomist. He did well, but wanted to do more for the community by using the profits he made in jalapenos. His past experience in cucumber production made the choice rather obvious for Fintrac and a detailed plan was developed that included both him producing on leased land and including other nearby farmers as outgrowers. Fintrac agronomists provided additional field expertise on a regular (at least weekly) basis and postharvest assistance was provided with the design of a simple low-cost packhouse.

In September 2002, the packhouse's concrete foundations were just being laid and scrap packing line equipment was piled nearby. In January 2003, just four months later, a refrigerated container was aligned with a loading dock and being filled with palletized boxes of first grade cucumbers, having gone through a packing line reconditioned by Javier Suazo from the old machinery piled on his land just a few months earlier.

In just this first season, 30 hectares are being harvested by Javier Suazo and his four outgrowers. They expect to produce and export 50,000 cartons (fifty 40-foot containers) of cucumbers between January and March under contract with an overseas buyer. More importantly, Javier Suazo and his outgrowers are again showing that small and medium-sized farmers can compete in the international marketplace with new technologies and improved agricultural practices. Javier Suazo saw a good business opportunity that at the same time achieved his dream of providing relief to unemployed residents of his small community in the Comayagua valley. Nearly one hundred residents, who would not have had jobs, now do. A community has a new source of income. "What is most remarkable," says Javier Suazo, "is the sense of hope that this has given to the community. A number of other farmers have come to me wanting to join the program next season and with ideas for new products that we could add. This is just the beginning."

Halfway back to the main highway, twenty yards in from the edge of the dusty road, there is another packhouse rising from a field. In March it will be completed and will be exporting the first Solo papayas from Honduras, also with agronomic, postharvest and marketing assistance provided by the entire Fintrac CDA team. Even with one month to go until its completion, local residents are already coming by to find out when they can start work. "This makes it all worthwhile," says Fintrac CDA Director Andy Medlicott commenting on the long days that he and his team spend away from home working with their Honduran farm partners. And this is just another of those long days ... still a two-hour drive before getting a little sleep someplace away from home and starting all over again early the next morning.