The powerful Amazonian fruit from which oil, nuts, milk and flour are extracted, cultivated in places hit by the armed conflict, by the hand of its inhabitants.
Alberto and Camilo Jaramillo, founders of the company Kahai, have committed to working in regions that were marginalized by the armed conflict, hand in hand with their inhabitants.
The commitment to generate environmentally friendly crops that have a positive impact on the local economy has been the key to the internationalization of their products.
“With the support of ProColombia, we began exporting in 2013.
After participating in several macro-roundtables and trade fairs we have managed to close deals with customers in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Thailand, Spain, France and Germany,” said Alberto Jaramillo, who noted that abroad a 30-milliliter bottle of oil costs approximately US$50.
For these industrial engineers and marketing specialists, sustainability is the banner of their business.
Through the implementation of productive projects supported by international cooperation, the brothers from Manizales are committed to the sustainable development of the Colombian Orinoco region.
A total of close to 500 families have managed to leave behind illicit crops, logging and illegal mining to take advantage of the benefits of cacay, a product that can guarantee them a minimum monthly salary for more than 50 years.
For Felipe Jaramillo, president of ProColombia, Kahai is a company that demonstrates the role that the private sector should play in the post-conflict period.
“In the framework of a greater Colombia, we support ventures like this one that generate economic development in departments such as Putumayo, Vaupés, Meta and Caquetá, and that because of their added value and sustainable practices have export opportunities in various markets.”
In addition to becoming a source of food security rich in protein, farmers in the most remote areas of Colombia have discovered that producing cacay can be a profitable alternative to illegality.
The company, which employs about 30 direct and 30 indirect employees at the production plant in Villavicencio, expects to reforest about 5,000 hectares and create 100 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs in five years.
“To achieve our production goals, we have strived to work throughout the value chain. We seek to guarantee the quality, efficiency, sustainability and traceability of the product from planting to export” stated Alberto who pointed out that currently wild production is almost 90% of the supply, while crops are 10%.
“The intention is to reverse these figures to go from the two tons we are producing today to 100 tons in 5 years,” he added.
To achieve the repopulation of the area, Kahai works with private crops and small producers who find in the product a measure of sustainable economic development.
The company receives foreign support through Swiss Impact investment funds and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with which it has already planted 400 hectares in Puerto Gaitán Meta, and expects to plant another 400 hectares in 2017.
“We seek to train these populations on planting and post-harvest processes so that they have a nutritious source of food security and an economic alternative for their livelihood,” said Camilo Jaramillo, who highlighted the positive impact of the company on the indigenous community of Uitorá in Caquetá.
In the medium term, the company will seek to develop cacay crops in La Macarena, La Uribe, and Vista Hermosa in Meta, areas that were formerly stigmatized by the presence of illegal armed groups.
The initiative, which will materialize with the support of the Governor’s Office of Meta, is expected to benefit another 500 families.
Sustainability as a key to internationalization
The road to internationalization began in 2009 when the company participated in Beyond Beauty in Paris, a fair that brings together professionals from the cosmetics and beauty industry.
“There we learned what the market was demanding.
It was a valuable experience that allowed us to reach so many markets in a short time,” said Alberto.
Under the KahaiTM Oil brand, the cacay is sold as an anti-aging cosmetic product in the United States and Canada through the online sales portal Amazon.com; it is also exported to Spain, where the product is distributed in beauty salons and recently, thanks to the efforts of ProColombia, it was able to close negotiations with the company Shop Japan, one of the main marketing channels in telesales, catalog, telephone and online sales in Japan.
“This is a great milestone for our company because it shows that our products are at the level of the highest market demands,” said Jaramillo, who expects to increase exports from US$200,000 to US$2.5 million in five years.
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