Innovation

Sustainable and responsible agriculture is the pathway Fruandes has chosen to address innovation. Three main components configure its business model: the first one constitutes putting the small grower at the core of the value chain; not only to stay as a part of it, but also allowing his or her empowerment, as the business cycle develops. The second element is the gender perspective that guides their production activities, seeking to dignify the female role in society and in their own households. Finally, the third element that completes the Fruandes innovation model is the knowledge network they have integrated under the principle of transparency.

From their perspective, that is no extraordinary thing. It is only the way business is supposed to work.

It is clear that Fruandes is the product of a great work from different people. Therefore, there are many to thank to for the success of this company. In advance, to the idealists Giovanni, Hugo, and Javier, who attached their life stories and hopes with social, commercial, and environmental needs. Next to them, the first group of displaced and hard working women, that held the first operation days. Additionally, Javier Vásquez, Fruandes Founder, does not hesitate to name their clients, investors, international NGOs, and local governments, as crucial allies, who have backed them up in honoring the value of fair trade, organic production and transparency.

When Javier is asked to describe the relation between the innovation and the company’s mission, he is quick to answer that their business model relates closely with their purpose from the very moment the company was born, even though they weren’t certified as a B Corp until 2013.

A story can be told to show Fruandes commitment with its essence: In 2012, when they hadn’t found organic pineapple certified suppliers yet, many of their customers in different continents were constantly requesting that product. In their search, Javier and Giovanni met a Colombian producer that offered them 200 hectares for a pineapple planting. Automatically his proposal was rejected, because Fruandes needed that same production capacity, but from 200 small low-income growers instead. The two years searching process was worth it, and now they count with an association of 42 small farmers working with them.

“Today, we have more than a thousand people working for the Colombian agro.”

“Fruit dehydration is not innovative. Respecting small producers is not innovative. Our innovation is the mixture that we have managed to obtain, on supplying a healthy and conscious market"

“We were born as a B Corp, even before we were certified. We are all purpose. We are driven by purpose.”

“It took a little more time, but it doesn’t matter until it fits our purpose.”

Inspiration

Javier, even though the grandson of a Colombian farmer, had no contact with the countryside as a kid, due to his grandfather’s strong beliefs about a better future in the urban lifestyle. Nonetheless, as he grew up, Javier cherished his grandfather’s lessons about justice, kindness, and high value of the landwork.

Life gave Javier a chance to return to the land, but in a different way. He found Giovanni Porras, an Agricultural Engineer, who became his partner and nowadays boosts the company’s operation in the farming field, alongside the small producers.

Together, they found Hugo Ciro, an innovator and proactive customer, who asked them for new products, different from the already known Colombian coffee. Hugo requested premium quality tropical fruit, with high added value. Without knowing it, that demand was the tipping point for the start of a new company.

Thus, Fruandes is a response to market trends, which became itself in a trendsetter company, by talking of fair trade and organic production in Colombia, perhaps when no one else was doing so, by the early 2000’s.

“Healthy experiences and wellbeing for all the productive chain,” serves as Fruandes mantra. Fruandes wants to provide solutions to conscious clients in search of a better nutrition, but also cares about the small farmer, as an individual and as a family member; who wants a better living, and who loves and respects the land and the environment. As a company, they work hard every day to run a profitable business, for all. There lies their higher purpose.

“…Feeling that the land has given me everything I am, is one of the strongest things I have preserved, since I was a kid…”

“Giovanni is Fruandes’s heart. He is Fair trade, is agriculture, and is fair relationships.”

“You don’t sell what you like, but what the market wants and needs.”

“We can make money doing well to the world.”

“We need to speak the same language that big companies do, to be heard and respected. We need to talk in millions of dollars.”

“Five years ago, we were afraid of anyone copying us; now one of our main goals is to be copied.”

Overall impact

Fruandes is present in Asian, European, and North American markets; produces near 900 tons/year of dried organic fruit and employs 65 people, 85% of which are women. Its operation also benefits 320 families of small fruit producers in Colombia.

Its social impact can be identified in different points of the business model. For instance, in its gender perspective hiring policy, that sets up a minimum of 80% of women employed in the company’s operation; besides education, health and housing support for female employees and their families. On the countryside, they work to make more visible the small growers, building fairer and longer term relationships with them.

On environmental issues, Fruandes manages to make the land more respected every day. They ensure to help land restoration through crop diversification. Today, they have 140 hectares of organic certified sowings, and an eco-friendly processing facility under construction.

By 2020, they hope to reach 1,500 farming families working with them, count with 1,000 organic certified hectares throughout the country, process 4,500 tons of organic fruit per year, and create about 150 jobs. All that, linked to a solid indicators system under which they can raise their management level.

ldquo;One of my favorite goals is one that puts us on a minimum of 20% of work with small producers associations conformed by people under 27 years. I think that is one way to give the Colombian countryside more future”

“When you sit next to a farmer at a dining table, and you treat him or her the same way you treat your international clients; that day we are all equal.”

Business benefit

In recent years leader organisations, like GIIRS, WFDO, Fondo de Inversión de Impacto, and Sistema B, have supported Fruandes on establishing performance measuring tools that allow them to be accountable for their results, not only with marketing purposes, but with the intention to lead and demonstrate to other entrepreneurs how they can make real transformations. That approach shows that Javier and Giovanni have lost the fear of relying on standard business protocols, very natural in early entrepreneurial stages, and that they are willing to find new, talented and honest game players.

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Social and environmental benefit

Fruandes' social impact is evident in their commitment with the Colombian countryside. For decades, conditions as extreme poverty and armed conflict in Colombian rural zones have caused migration and loss of rural lifestyle traditions among the youngest. Fruandes fosters the preservation of the Colombian farming culture in new generations by working in alliance with associations of young growers, so they take the land as a way to defend, transform and develop the country and their own lives.

Interview

Javier Vásquez, Business Manager