Over the last several years, the price of animal feed has skyrocketed in Nicaragua.  Large producers who have the capital to buy their feed in bulk have been able to keep costs down and compete.  Small producers, however, are struggling to get by with cheap, low-quality grains that translate into skinny animals and razor thin margins.

Our friends at Cooperativa CAMECHI saw this problem and wanted to fix it.  The President of the Coop, Paulo Reyes, who doubles as a biology professor at the local university, began to experiment.  He found that by fermenting certain low-cost ingredients with the right mix of microbial cultures, it was possible to produce a feed that was much more affordable than mainstream products but comparable in nutritional value.

That’s when the Cooperative came to The Working World.  The workers wanted a loan for machinery to produce this new formula on a large scale and take advantage of what appeared to be an untapped market.  Today, less than a year after our initial investment, the Cooperative sells to over 20 intermediaries throughout the Nicaraguan countryside and has regular orders totaling over 7000 pounds of feed per week.

Thanks to TWW financing and the hard work of these worker-owners, small producers are able to compete again, and Cooperativa CAMECHI is on the fast track to long-term, sustainable growth.