Fruandes began with a vision
Fruandes began with a vision
Hugo Ciro, a Colombian gone Canadian, was importing coffee from his land of origin to his new home country. As the 1990s drew to a close, international coffee prices plummeted to all-time lows. Hugo witnessed many coffee farmers he knew and worked with struggle to make a viable living on these depressed prices. He was acutely aware of the Colombian coffee farmers’ experience. As a child he had spent many summer months at his grandparents' coffee farm in the mountains of Antioquia.
In the rich soil of the Andean mountains, the high-growing fruit trees provide natural shade to the delicate coffee-bean trees. Hugo knew that there was also a market for these tropical fruits and set out to capture this opportunity.
Enter Giovanni Porras, a Colombian agronomist and son of a mango farmer, who shared Hugo’s vision of economic diversification. Together as partners, they established Fruandes (Los Frutos de Andes, Fruits of the Andes) in 2002.
An Opportunity
An Opportunity
for small-scale farmers and single working mothers
for small-scale farmers and single working mothers
The new company had a clear purpose – to highlight the small-scale farmer in the value chain while creating a delicious product, and to provide formal employment to single mothers in Cazucá, Bogotá.
They knew the farmers were not just great coffee farmers, but simply great farmers whose skills could be applied to a different type of product which would create sustainable, long-term opportunities, with stable incomes.
They also were aware that some of women in Cazucá had great leadership skills that they would never be able to truly apply in the conventional job market. By creating conditions that would allow single mothers to have legal, stable work, they set out to change the realities for the women and their families.
Sending dried fruit to Canada
Sending dried fruit to Canada
One year later, in 2003, we sent our first shipment: 180 kg of dried fruit travelled to Canada
The company began employing the single mothers to process dried fruit and increasingly started involving the small-scale farmers until the farmers and single working mothers became part of a value chain that truly brings value to everyone involved.
The farmers poured their love and skill into growing new crops, such as pineapple, mango, and banana, and the single mothers carefully prepared the fruit, selecting, slicing, dehydrating, and packaging only the best product.
Caring for our planet
Caring for our planet
In 2007, we wanted to step it up a notch, extending the good to our planet. We encouraged our farmers to completely switch to organic production and helped them in the certification process. A few years later Javier Vasquez joined Fruandes as project manager that same year and in 2012 decided to become a partner and shareholder of the company.
First Certified ORGANIC PRODUCTS
First Certified ORGANIC PRODUCTS
Growing organically
Growing organically
In 2017, ten years later, we have 203 hectares certified organic growing seven different products: mango, pineapple, goldenberry, dragon fruit, banana, sugarcane, and cacao in six departments of Colombia. We are exporting our products to a dozen different countries, including Canada, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, The United States, and also sell, of course, in Colombia.
100% Organic Production
100% Organic Production
We are proud to say that all of our products are 100% Organic and Fair-Trade Certified. More than 350 families of small-scale farmers are part of our movement. Seventy-five staff, 70% of which are women, work at our plant and headquarter.
A simple dream between two friends has built an entire community that cares about and respects the environment, the fruit that they produce, and every member of their community and that includes you - our consumers.