Michael Wale meets with the CEO of the Bolivian company turning highly sought after organic ‘Royal Quinoa’ into an international export success story.
Andean Valley Corporation protects, backs and markets the unique organic Royal Quinoa produce of 487 farmers in the hilly Andean range of Bolivia.
The company has the largest quinoa processing capacity of Bolivia – and, in fact, the world. Over the years it has been expanding its reach across borders, and now has sales and distribution operations in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Perú and Japan, enabling it to trade in 15 different countries.
Javier Fernandez is CEO and president of the Andean Valley Corporation, who has guided the company from a purely local producer to a worldwide exporter. He explained that even when his company set out, back in the 1990s, on its journey to the size it is today, he was deeply conscious of his nation’s agricultural and cultural background: “One of the oldest cultures in our country, the Inca culture, was organic – and we’re trying to bring that back”.
He added that he was talking about the highest and most isolated country in South America.
Quinoa is well known as a superfood with exceptional nutritional properties. It was first domesticated between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago in the Andean countries of South America, and is an important staple in Andean cultures. From among its more than 17 varieties the Royal Quinoa – found exclusively in the Southern Altiplane of Bolivia – stands out, due to its particular growing and nutritional properties.
Due to the growing conditions, the plant has adapted to extreme conditions of cold and dry weather, saline soils and high altitudes. Far from being a major obstacle these particular conditions have made it possible to obtain larger grains and organoleptic characteristics superior to those of any other type of quinoa.
Royal Quinoa seeds are three to four times larger in diameter than other quinoa varieties. And since the crops are grown from native seeds, it has a consistently high set of nutritional properties.
Protein packed
Quinoa seeds are, indeed, highly nutritious providing 13% protein and a more balanced amino acid make-up than wheat, so it is considered as a crop with huge potential for feeding a growing world population.
Quinoa is grown in the winter months of countries with equatorial climates, and its seeds can be used to make flour, soup, breakfast cereal and was a nutritious salad accompaniment. The leaves can be used as greens for salads or as forage for livestock. Its harvest residue can be used as animal feed.
Quinoa first came to attention in the Europe and North America when the ingredient suddenly appeared on the plates of fashionable restaurants in cosmopolitan capitals. But it is now a widely used ingredient in everyday western cooking, and a staple of the takeaway salad trade.
Javier Fernandez traces the story of how a personal passion has grown into an international operation. “It all started over 20 years ago when we thought there was an interesting opportunity right here in Bolivia to sell something to the world very few people outside South America had ever heard about. Nobody knew about it. Bolivia was one of the first countries to produce organic cacao beans to make chocolate. Everybody grew organic. As for Royal Quinoa, is operations have always been rooted in organic. In the early days the biggest challenge was the consistency of supply. So in the beginning we got 22 farmers to work together. They were growing organically, but didn’t have the paperwork guaranteeing it officially. So they formed a co-operative so that they could work together to attain organic certification. Bolivia has its own organic organic standard, which is recognised by America (US NOP), Canada and the European Union.
‘Next we built a state-of-the-art factory so we could produce enough to enter the American market, to the highest standards. Here the grains are cleaned, washed – with strict quality control all of the way – and packed.”
Breaking America
It’s well known that entering the US market is difficult – many large firms have failed. So Andean Valley parented with an American company with on-the-ground market knowledge. At the start, trade amounted to selling two containers a year. Over time that grew to one container every two months. Meanwhile exports have grown strongly in other territories, especially to Europe, and in the last three years to China.
The 487 farmers in Bolivia who supply Andean Valley, whose farms average ten hectares each, are producing 4,000 metric tonnes a of product year, of which 95% is processed and exported. Many other companies, trying to copy Andean’s success, have been short-lived. Javier Fernandez puts this down to not paying the correct price. He explains: “We try to do the good things. You have to respect the full production chain, from farmer to retailer. If you want to stay in the market then you must do the right thing – and the means paying fair price to producers.”
Andean Valley has also developed a substantial branded product business (with over 50 lines), which includes not only three colours of royal Quinoa grain, but flakes and flour, and also gluten-free and ready-to-cook mixes – vegetarian hamburgers, flans, brownies, pancakes and pizza dough among them.
Constant innovation
Fernandez is searching for innovative news ways of employing Royal Quinoa all the time. “We have just completed a vegan steak, you simply add water and fry it. The flour and flakes can be exported in small amounts or bulk. We have a large ready-to-eat line, as well as baby foods. There is virtually nothing we cannot make from organic Royal Quinoa!”.
I met Javier Fernandez in Dubai, which seems entirely appropriate. As he told me: “Right now we want to get into the Middle East, and I’m confident we can. After all our product is one of the ten superfoods of the world.”. I’ve no doubt Andean Valley will do just that.