- Peruvian coffee and cocoa producers now have access to better financing opportunities, thanks to the partnership between MOCCA and the Peruvian Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI).
For many coffee and cocoa producers, access to bank loans for working capital translates into the opportunity to make new investments that will allow them to increase their productivity, earn greater income and improve their quality of life.
MOCCA and MIDAGRI aware of this reality, established a partnership to provide producer organizations access to financing through the Agroperú Fund, which is managed by Agrobanco. To date, more than US$16 million has been disbursed in loans through the MOCCA and MIDAGRI partnership, facilitating access to financing to more than 7,000 Peruvian coffee and cocoa producers.
MOCCA is a 7-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food for Progress Program, which seeks to improve agricultural productivity and expand trade in agricultural products. The MOCCA project is being executed by a consortium led by TechnoServe. Lutheran World Relief leads the cocoa activities.
Eleuterio Aguilar, a cocoa producer and member of the CEPROAA Cooperative, located in the Amazonas region, Utcubamba District (Peru), is among those who have received a loan through this partnership.
He joined the MOCCA program more than a year ago, interested in learning better cocoa growing practices, and in sharing knowledge with other producers and accessing financing options that fit his needs.
“I needed money to continue investing in my cocoa plantation and MOCCA helped me with the complete process to obtain financing with Agrobanco. I used the money to renovate, and to rehabilitate and to buy fertilizers. Thanks to this financing I will be able to increase my yields in the next harvest”
Eleuterio Aguilar
Cacao Producer
Amazonas, Perú
The CEPROAA cooperative is an organization made up of more than 400 coffee and cocoa producers and is part of the network of cooperatives supported by the MOCCA program in Peru.
“MOCCA provides support through a financial manager who records producers’ files and facilitates their access toloans from Agrobanco. In addition, through the Cocoa Flavors Map, the CEPROAA Cooperative has opened new markets in Europe and the United States,” says Cily Díaz, Manager of the CEPROAA Cooperative
On the other hand, Serbilio Castillo, a coffee producer from Cajamarca, says that with the help of MOCCA he obtained a S. 19,000 loan from the Agroperú Fund to renovate 2 hectares of his coffee plantation.
“These loans provide us with many benefits, because the interest rate is low and we have a grace period of 2 years, which allows us to recover the investment and obtain more profits” stated Serbilio.
In Peru, MOCCA provides technical training to more than 17,500 coffee producers and more than 11,000 cocoa producers, assisting in their integration into higher-value markets, providing technical assistance, research, access to quality genetic material, and promoting catalytic financing models.
