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Sometimes money really does grow on trees!

When you live high up on the slopes of a volcano, making ends meet is a daily challenge and it might seem safe to say that money does not grow on trees.  However, Rosa Garcia and Josefa Silva from the community of El Ojochal del Listón are just discovering that maybe money does grow on trees after all.

Avocado trees are native to hillside forests in western Nicaragua and for years Rosa and others from the community have earned some extra cash taking avocados down the hill to sell in San Jacinto and neighbouring villages.  The two month avocado harvest could be a valuable source of income for families from this remote community, but the logistical challenges of transporting the produce and poor access to markets have limited production to a fraction of its potential.  The trees offer a high rate of return for the area of land used and are a more environmentally sustainable alterative to red beans which are grown across the hillsides in areas cleared by slash and burn.  Rosa only needs around half a dozen avocado trees to earn more than she could from a whole hectare of beans – and the avocados are much less work too!

Today, for the first time, Rosa and Josefa found themselves selling their avocados to a local supermarket in León.  Nuevas Esperanzas’ agricultural engineer, Enrique Bolaños put them in touch with Gloria Castellón who has worked as a buyer for Salman’s supermarket for the last 7 years.  Gloria explained that they like to work with local producers to support the local economy and because this gives them more control over the quality of the produce they are buying.  Rosa and Josefa brought 700 avocados down from El Ojochal on a cart early in the morning, something which would not have been possible before Nuevas Esperanzas worked with the community to improve the road last year.  Two of the Nuevas Esperanzas team met them in San Jacinto to help them transport the produce to León to be sold.

There were nervous moments for Rosa and Josefa as they watched Gloria check each fruit carefully for size and quality.  Of the 700 fruit Gloria accepted around 550, classing just over 400 as ‘medium’ and 150 as large.  A large avocado in Nicaragua is about 20cm long, a giant for the UK!  Gloria said she was very happy with the purchase and that the avocados were very good quality.  She hopes to buy from the producers in El Ojochal again.

As Enrique pointed out, this sale marks both a new opportunity and a new challenge for the producers in El Ojochal.  They have never sold to a supermarket before and are learning that quality is really important.  A crate of mixed quality avocados will reduce the price offered so it is better to select the fruit carefully first before offering them to the buyer.

For Rosa it wasn’t easy to find 500 large avocados all ready to take to market on the same day.  The crop has not been as good this year and she is not used to selling so many fruit in a day.  She was really happy after selling to Salman’s, though, and described it as a wonderful experience.  While the buyer was much stricter than in the market, the price was much better.  Asked how she felt about the mark-up the supermarket will add on the price, Rosa said she understood that is how it worked and this has helped her to think more about experimenting with selling her avocados directly, perhaps from her own market stall.  When the sale was complete Rosa and Josefa popped into Salman’s to do a bit of shopping for themselves.  Rosa had an eye on the prices of all the fresh produce though.  She was thinking about just how much she could make from all those green beans she has been growing in her organic garden - but  that, as they say, is another story! 

19/07/10