Dried Fruit Sold Here

August 8th, 2008 Piura, Peru

Dried Fruit Sold Here

Last week we had sales dress rehearsals. Today was the big day. In the morning, Silvia went to Piura with me. First we visited an Art Gallery Center that also sells natural products from the local area. The owners were very kind and agreed to buy 14 bags of 100g each for the moment for personal consumption as well as to give away as gifts. They expect to buy from us the next mango season and encouraged us to continue to investigate the possibility of preparing mango jam as well.

Then we talked to the manager at a local grocery store. He told us that he carried dried mangos before and that there wasn´t very high turnover because the clientele doesn´t know the product. We offered to set up a sample stand and he said next mango season we can maybe give it a try.

Later that evening I met up with a youth named Cesar after his daily classes at the local Art Institute. We made the sales pitch at a local chocolate and candy shop. They were very excited about the product and told us they used to dry mangos themselves and that they sold well but it was just to labor intensive. So they agreed to buy the rest of our stock (44 bags of 50g each) and asked us to return once production began again.

I think this project has been a real success. In order to produce the 3.6 kg of product we just sold we used one case of fresh mangos which sells for S/. 10. We sold the value added product for S/. 125.60. Most of the cost of the product is mango which we buy from ourselves and labor which we provide. So basically the entire difference is profit we are earning. Thus the group just earned about 12 times as much per case of mangos then they used to.

Hopefully, they really take initiative and continue to expand the project. If you would still like to buy product, my mom still has some in States. Its $2 a bag plus $4 for shipping up to 5 bags. Just email me.