Smallholders Value Chain Development Project in Cusco, Peru

The Project, entitled “Smallholders Value Chain Development Project Cusco” will last for two years and benefit 40 families of a rural community of Cusco. It is financed by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and Operaciones Arcos Dorados de Perú S.A., running the McDonald's restaurant in Cusco.

The project aims at improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers of the community of Qorimarca in the Cusco Region of Peru by integrating them to the high quality horticulture value chain in order to supply to Arcos Dorados and other hotels and restaurants in Cusco.

Arcos Dorados will facilitate interaction with its purchase, supply chain and quality assurance departments both locally in Peru and internationally in order to enable the development of the required production standards. SFSA commits to reasonably support the Project and IC with knowledge in agronomical practices that may be required from local or foreign experts.

This project is innovative in the sense that donors come from the private sector and that they are directly involved in the technical advice; furthermore, Intercooperation will make use of a mix of two methodologies that were developed by two programmes in Peru and financed by SDC: the “business network” from the APOMIPE programme (Support to micro and small Enterprises in Peru), and the “concerted resources management” from the MASAL programme (Sustainable Management of Soil and Water in the hillside).