Nicaragua
The largest country in Central America, Nicaragua has a geographic advantage in easy access to both regional and international markets. With a relatively small -- but flexible and growing – economy, agriculture is the foundation for economic development in Nicaragua. Tourism and the financial industry are also beginning to show great potential. The population over 5.6 million people provides opportunities to expand traditional and selective markets. TechnoServe-Nicaragua has concentrated its efforts on helping micro- and small agricultural producers enter formal markets, improve product quality and boost profits and help they make them more competitive and enable them to gain access to these better-paying markets. Identifying and supporting entrepreneurs through business plan competitions is one step in this process too.
Technoserve/Nicaragua
Ofiplaza El Retiro, Suite 537
Rotonda El Periodista
150 mts. al sur
Managua, Nicaragua
Tel: 505-2254-7480
Fax: 505-2254-7486
TechnoServe/Nicaragua Contact: Julio Montealegre
Established: 1976
Practices: Building Businesses and Industries Developing Entrepreneurs
Sectors: Agriculture & Agribusiness
Featured Work > Nicaragua
Cocoa Offers New Hope for Nicaraguan Farmers
It’s a long way from the poverty and devastation of civil war to prosperity. In Nicaragua, TechnoServe has helped a farming cooperative make that journey by harnessing the potential of undervalued crops.
Featured Work > Nicaragua
Nicaraguan Farmers’ Business Takes Off
As part of a USAID-funded program to link small-scale producers to more lucrative markets, TechnoServe helps rural farmers in Nicaragua pull themselves out of poverty.
Developing Entrepreneurs
Business Plan Competitions
TechnoServe/Nicaragua is running its fifth national business competition, Idea tu Empresa, to help aspiring entrepreneurs turn good ideas into thriving businesses. To date, 106 businesses have been launched or expanded, creating more than 600 jobs. In addition to receiving training and mentoring, participants forge new business relationships. These relationships have netted nearly $500,000 in additional financial support from various private-sector organizations.
Key supporters: Cargill, Banco de la Producción, Centro Empresarial Pellas, and U.S. Agency for International Development
Building Businesses and Industries
Agriculture & Agribusiness › Coffee
Coffee is one of Nicaragua's largest industries, with tens of thousands of small producers. TechnoServe is an important supporter of Cup of Excellence, a national competition to identify the best coffee in each country and create awareness of international buyers.
Key supporters: Inter-American Development Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development and Procter & Gamble
Agriculture & Agribusiness › Dairy
TechnoServe is helping dairy producers to gain access to higher-paying but more demanding local and export markets. Business advisors are working with farmers to improve the quality of their milk and increase the productivity of their livestock. TechnoServe is also working with processing plants and their suppliers to help them increase productivity, modernize plants and establish links with buyers. The program has increased the income of thousands of small-scale milk producers and has enabled six processing plants to export to U.S. and regional markets. (Learn more about our work here.)
Key supporters: FondeAgro (a local agricultural development foundation funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)), Millennium Challenge Corporation through Cuenta Reto del Milenio Nicaragua and U.S. Agency for International Development
Agriculture & Agribusiness › Horticulture
TechnoServe is helping farmer cooperatives in regions producing low-quality coffee to diversify into more profitable crops such as root vegetables (notably quequisque, malanga and potatoes). Business advisors are teaching them better farming methods and value-added processing that have increased yields and product quality. Hundreds of small-scale farmers are earning higher incomes and generating hundreds of new processing and packing jobs. We are also helping individual farmers and farmer cooperatives to produce higher-value produce – such as squash and malanga chips – for national and export markets. Many farmer groups are selling to the largest national supermarket chain and the Central American supplier to Wal-Mart.
Key supporters: U.S. Agency for International Development (in alliance with Catholic Relief Services) and the Argidius Foundation
"To me TechnoServe has always been distinguished by its long-term commitment to building cooperatives and businesses from the bottom up in a way that makes sense for the individuals."
PATRICIA M. CLOHERTY
Chairman and CEO, Delta Private Equity Partners