PepsiCo Alimentos Venezuela launches program to train potato growers in the region
PepsiCo Alimentos Venezuela has launched its Agro with Purpose program, which benefits more than 100 potato growers in Mucuchíes, Mérida state, with the training of new techniques to strengthen production.
Gabriel Ginés, general manager of PepsiCo Alimentos Venezuela, explained that these 100 farmers are receiving new knowledge for sustainable and technological production, which facilitates the planting process.
“We are starting, possibly we are going to have a bump, but we are taking steps and the first one was these 100 farmers and then not only with potatoes, but also with plantain and corn,” said Ginés. He added that they aim to expand this project to between 3,000 and 4,000 farmers in Mérida, as well as to other states of the country.
PepsiCo is the largest consumer of potatoes in Venezuela, with around 2,400 tons, Ginés said.
In addition, the raw material of the company that produces Doritos, Ruffles, Cheese Tris, Jack& Papas, De Todito, among other sweets, is 100% from Venezuelan fields. “One-hundred percent of the potatoes, corn and bananas used to make the products are Venezuelan,” Ginés explained.
During the project launch, one of the winners of the Pepsi 2022 awards, María Paula Cano, senior director of Corporate Affairs and Government Pepsico Latin America, emphasized the importance of this type of agricultural program, which involves the entire production chain.
“We go through all the agricultural chain, production and positive choices, so that the consumer knows that we have regenerative agriculture and improve the quality of life in the products,” Cano said.
She also celebrated that the Agro with Purpose program tucks women in the fields to work and learn in the field. “There is a big gap in agriculture with women in the fields. To the extent that women participate in these processes and study, there will be greater participation in the economy,” said the Colombian-born senior director.
Marco Arana, senior operations manager of PepsiCo Alimentos Venezuela, said that with this program “together we can build for the production of potatoes, through education, strengthen ties with the fields and how we can encourage the new generations to get involved in the agricultural world.”
Arana explained that with the new technology platform, which is managed by the growers, they will be able to improve the administration of resources, generate more employment and inclusion for the companies that work with PepsiCo. He explained that some growers have migrated to other crops, so it is not only about potatoes.
Carlos Dini, general director of the Voluntary Dividend for the Community highlighted that in addition to Agro with Purpose, eight years ago the company started a nutrition program, especially for children, as part of its social plans.
The “nutrition with purpose” plan has been implemented in more than 30 schools in Mérida, and also reached La Pradera de La Vega, in Caracas.