New Cold Room helps Produce producers in Jinotega

On September 8, the United States Ambassador, Robert J. Callahan, and the USAID/Nicaragua Acting Mission Director, Sharon T. Carter, inaugurated the new Tomatoya-Chaguite Grande Cooperative cold storage room, in Tomatoya, Department of Jinotega.

The cold room was financed through an agreement between the Tomatoya-Chaguite Grande Cooperative and the La Colonia Supermarket chain, with a donation from USAID’S Alliance to Create Opportunities for Rural Development through Agri-business Relations (ACORDAR), implemented by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) through a consortium of associates that include Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Aldea Global (AG) and La Fise.

The ACORDAR program is valued at close to $30 million, of which the U.S. government, though USAID, has provided more than $9.6 million dollars.  The program benefits more than 5,400 individual producers and 85 agriculture cooperatives in 44 municipalities in Matagalpa, Jinotega, Estelí, Nueva Segovia, Madriz, Rivas, Managua, RAAN and RAAS.

The program provides technical assistance, technology and infrastructure to help farmers improve the quality of their products to take advantage of opportunities made available by the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).

With $12,000 in financing from the La Colonia Supermarket chain and $7,400 from ACORDAR, the cooperative could construct the cold room and install refrigeration units in its cargo trucks.  The cooperative will repay the La Colonia no-interest loan, through sales of its products, assuring fresh, high-quality produce from the field to the supermarket.