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native potato chips are awarded in Europe

Producers Pazos, Huancavelica, concrete sales in France and Belgium. For its success the Belgian Royal Committee has granted the Gold Award Arqueros

By: Marisol Grau

In Pazos breakfast, lunch and dinner potato. Is indispensable. She is considered the first food on the family table. In this district Tayacaja huancavelicano harvested about 400 different varieties. More than enough white, yellow or Peruvian girl, those commercial species, for sure, you eat every other day. While the other end almost always in the same breath, the menu of survival.

• few exceptions: potatoes, red and blue pigmentation (bull horn, huayro male Putis, among other species). Thus, local producers supported by the French NGO Veterinaire Sans Frontieres-Centre International de Cooperation pour le Developpement Agricole (AVSF-CICDA) these tubers dug to convert colors in chips, so that the European continent taste test.

• La Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios para la Industria Andina (Agropia) ya ha exportado 9 contenedores a Francia y Bélgica desde el 2009, lo que equivale a 19,9 toneladas de chips y 60 toneladas de papa nativa. Además, recientemente el comité real belga otorgó a las papas de Pazos el premio Arqueros de Oro 2010 por su calidad y gran acogida entre los consumidores.

• “Al principio pensaban que habíamos pintado las papas”, cuenta Rolando Romero (40), presidente de Agropia. Me muestra algunas, todavía húmedas, recién sacadas de la tierra fértil. Aquí no hay secretos for success, only fair trade, the concept under which they work and produce.

• EFFECT JUST
• S/.2 They pay per kilo instead of 50, 60 or even 70 cents. Distribute its products through this solidarity market has earned them an extra margin of money and loosen the belt that tightens extreme poverty.

• This income serves mainly to improve their quality of life and education of their children. But still have other dreams to fulfill. "A 4 × 4 truck to transport the chips," says Spiritist Guerrero (53). "A piece of land in the city," Elmer Chavez proposed (34). However, those who we think Pazos, rather, on the urgency to replace those trails accessible by paved roads, or the renewal of the precarious health center, more medicines and better equipment. Two ways to restore its place in a town that seems lost in the mountains.

• "For me, working with fair trade has meant a major change. Before I never thought to reach European markets, "says Rolando . Apart from weevil (plague that sickens the tuber), both competition and the constraints generated by the market itself are a bitter pill for these farmers. Living in one of the poorest departments of Peru makes them think. "Social programs do not work. We want projects like this, involving a transformation " says Rolando very confident.

• WITH GOOD START Pollera
• Skirts color the hard work of the farms. They and they work alike. Its vitality is demonstrated to work the land. And is that the role of women in the field has become so fundamental and at home, with children or When preparing the pachamanca. "It is our right hand," say the boys.

• Spiritist, for example, has served as municipal agent. And Nelly Drain (42) serves as treasurer of Agropia. Say, one of the few people with talent for numbers in the community. Easy laugh, Nelly is all a model. Poses with ease in front of the camera lens. Feminine coquetry knows no region. His picture adorns the packaging of red chips that are sold in supermarkets in France and Belgium.

• DAILY POTATO
Elmer
• collect potatoes. Started with 19 varieties and has nearly 300. Very proud, that has won fair and regional Pazos Huancavelica with tubers. Several producers are, in turn, conservationists.

• The seal of the Fair Trade system encourages them to care for the environment and offers S/.2 rates, 40 per kilo for organic potatoes. Rolando , for example, already has a 100% organic plot. Meanwhile work, no time for rest. Calloused hands, the hoe over his shoulder and back pain are evidence of their commitment. And the green and blue landscape that accompanies daily consolation reward.

• At the end of the day while some believe that Huancavelica stagnate into oblivion, someone in France or Belgium opens a bag of chips and enjoy the delicious native potatoes Pazos.

• The social and economic benefits they bring solidarity markets
• 65 FAMILIES BENEFIT
• The export project started in 2009 chips and has benefited 65 families from communities in the district Pazos. Their plots of native potatoes are among the 2,800 and 4,200 meters

• CERTIFICATION
• Ethiquable is a French import that allows the presence of this product in Europe. Ecocert is the entity responsible for awarding the Fairtrade label. This year, farmers are eager for the organic seal Pazos.

• FAIRTRADE
• is a system that functions as an option to the conventional market. Gives small farmers a fairer trade deal and helpful and decent working conditions.

• FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT
• To achieve Fairtrade Pazos producers had to form a formal association with gender equality and respect for the environment.

• VALUE ADDED
• In 2010, producers received as a reward, about $ 525 for each container of exported chips. This addition to earnings per kilo.

• HOUSE STAGE
• Tomorrow during Paul McCartney concert will be sold to the audience innovative dishes made from native potatoes.