The following blog is based on a presentation given by Francisco Viteri, General Manager, Popoyán, at the AgInvestor Lab hosted by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation.
Francisco Viteri has served for 30 years as the general manager of the Agropecuaria Popoyán, S.A., which exports fruits and vegetables from Guatemala to the United States, Canada, Holland, and Spain, among other countries. Popoyán has become a leader in Central America transferring technology to small farmers. Francisco described growing his business by learning from early failures, developing sales first in the domestic market before expanding, and the importance of organizational flexibility and establishing partnerships to grow. Believing in the importance of shared social responsibility as part of the business model, Popoyán has established a Research and Innovation center with a Dutch company to train farmers on horticultural technologies for high value export crops. Since March of this year, they have worked with 400 growers, well on their way to their longer term goal of training 2,000 growers in two years. Francisco also explained the importance of understanding farmer risk, including environmental disasters and climactic variations, when working with smallholders.
Francisco’s key factors for business success are:
1) Be open to change
2) Continuously improve your business
3) Education/training is essential to customer adoption
4) Be hands on as an entrepreneur
5) Benchmark your business globally to keep track of progress
6) Maintain a positive attitude
7) Do not give up easily; persevere and endure through difficult times
8) Keep good people at the center of the equation
In the video below, Francisco explains the importance of keeping the end customer in mind as you grow your business and “thinking big, acting small”.
