Organic Food in Cuenca
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NEW
– QUINOA
IN ECUADOR
There may also be other
articles in this area of health (eg local natural supplements,
specialist medical practitioners, "Medical
Tourism", etc).  Please note that the 12 free range eggs ("huevos") made up more than 25% of the total amount. This seems unusual to us.  The two photos immediately below are of the coop's shop.   This
store is owned and managed by the cooperative. There
are several of these stores in the Azuay Province (Cuenca in the
capital) and also in the Guayas Province (Guayaquil is the capital). In
addition, the coop owns and operates the organic farm in Cuenca that
supplies the stores, and it also purchases organic produce from other
local farmers. The coop states that over 50% of their produce is sold
to restaurants. You can probably find out which restaurants these are
– if you want to eat more healthy food when you
dine out. A
credit society is also owned by the coop – for receiving
deposits as well as financing local farmers. The coop will soon be
issuing debit cards and ATM’s that will be able to take Visa
Cards, Mastercards, etc. A
few weeks prior to our food shopping trip to the organic shop,
we opened a savings account with the coop’s deposit
facility. They offer a more convenient automatic system compared with
the normal banks for the payment of utility accounts (power, etc). In
addition, the coops interest rates on deposits are much higher than
other banks. We heard that the
interest rate paid on deposits is as high as 12%. As
a quick aside, we are quite familiar with the operations of a former
cooperative in Western Australia. This coop, Wesfarmers, is now a very
successful West Australian company which began as a farmer’s
cooperative in 1914. If you are interested in reading about how
“big oaks can grow from little acorns”, read about
the Wesfarmers story (http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/about-us/company-history.html).
Observe how a small farmers coop has grown into a large corporation.
This particular cooperative, and especially after conversion to a
public company in the 1980’s, has emerged as
Australia’s largest employer (200,000). It now has about
400,000 shareholders and owns many major investments in mining,
supermarkets, department stores, hardware & building products,
insurance, chemicals & fertilizers, and industrial and safety
products. The company is now capitalized at more than US$25 Billion. Maybe
Cuenca’s cooperative could grow into a similar success
story???? This
photo below shows the current head office of Coopera Ltda. This office
is sited about 15 minutes (by car) from the center of Cuenca. It is
very close to the coop’s organic farm. And
these photos below show a billboard and entrance to the packing and
cold storage building which is about a 5 minute walk from the head
office. The dispatch and receivals areas, and farm, is at the rear of
this building. We were so impressed with this local food production
facility, that we plan to organize regular tours to show locals and
visitors first-hand what is available in Cuenca. The managers of the
cooperative are very keen for us to show their facility to foreigners,
as well as any local Ecuadorians who are interested. It is in
everyone’s interest to promote the production and marketing
of healthy food. Just
inside the entrance is an area where various organic condiments are
made and packaged.
You
can see here the various vegetables being prepared for
delivery to the stores. You
will even notice that watermelons and rockmelons (cantaloupe) are grown
in these covered farming area (see last two photos in this Newsletter).
These are normally grown on the coast here – in warmer
climates. The covered areas Cuenca make the temperatures warm enough to
grow these plants that are typically grown in mild to warm climates. This
shows the dispatch and receivals area. Local organic farm produce is
purchased to Just
glance through the photos below to see the lush greenery of the organic
food production, and as they say, a picture says a thousand
words. I am sure you can almost smell the different aroma's
as you glance through.
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