Maya Nut: Ancient Food for Healthy Forests and Families in Nicaragua

I. The objectives of our business are to:
(1) Increase the market for food products made locally from Maya Nut. We have already established a modest presence in the local market with for both raw material and value-added products, but compared to the increasing demand for Maya Nut in the USA, Mexico, and Central America, Nicaragua has done little to capitalize on the opportunities for value-added products from Maya Nut. We will assure a substantial increase in the markets for both raw and value-added products by forming an alliance between the women producers and a socially responsible food marketing businesses which works locally to promote local uses of organic and ecologically sustainable food products in Nicaragua. This business has a clientele in the higher and mid-income strata, and has packaging, marketing and public relations strategies already developed or under development for similar products.
(2) Empower women as income generators and improve the nutrition of the women and their families. To achieve this, we will continue to benefit from the educational and motivational help from the Equilibrium Fund, which has already established that their work with the community of women producers contributes markedly to achieving these goals.
(3) Enhance uses of non-timber uses of trees from the Nicaraguan rainforests as a means of helping to preserve the forests.
II. Profit will be generated by:
To date, we have been marketing on a relatively small scale. Consumer interest in our products is budding rapidly and we have no doubt that there is considerable potential to increase the market substantially. We aim to generate profit by marketing a larger and more diversified product line of high-quality products with excellent taste, presentation, and packaging using a public relations method which orients clients to the organic, fair trade and nutritional qualities of our products at prices that are several-fold greater than the combined costs of production, processing and marketing.
III. Our market segments are:
(1) The local market is already established on a small scale. We are currently supplying 5 bakeries, several restaurants, and several NGO's with Maya Nut products. Expansion of this market is feasible, given the more than satisfactory experience to date with this segment.
(2) Markets within Europe are under development in collaboration with donor-sponsored projects designed specifically to develop the European market for ecologically produced food items.
(3) Consumers in the USA want ready-to-prepare healthy foods. One of our new product lines, which is a ready-to-prepare muffin mix based on Maya Nut, will be tailored to this segment.

I. Marketing is already underway on a small scale, and our success gives us direction for our future marketing strategies which include: (1) Formation of business alliances between the women producers and epxerts in marketing organic fair trade food items; (2) Televised programs. We already have been televising a program weekly for about one year, and consumer interest is growing not only in the segment but in the foods we discuss. We can already identify increased awareness and uses of nutritious foods produced in Nicaragua, including the Maya Nut as a result of the program; (3) Local press articles. We have excellent rapport with the major local newspaper and frequently write for them on nutritious organic foods, their roles in healthy diets, the roles of healthy diets in human and ecolgical health, and so on. We have every reason to believe that this opportunity can be expanded and through this means, we will be successful in bringing our Maya Nut products to the attention of consumers, restaurants and bakeries, schools, NGO's and others which will either purchase our value-added products or use the raw processed Maya Nut in their own recipes; (4) From the processed Maya Nut, we will develop a ready-to-prepare muffin mix and market this through a fair-trade natural foods company in the USA or Europe.
II. Our competitors are (1) producers of industrialized processed baked foods produced without social consciousness. In this first case, our product is superior nutritionally and we will build a clientele from the subpopulation which is or will become motivated to eat more healthfully using our delicious, innovative and nutritious products. (2) producers of whole grain breads and bakery items that do not use Maya Nut. In this second case, we will collaborate with our competitors, for 2 reasons. First, each of the whole grain bakers have a potential interest in incorporating Maya Nut in their products, which would mean more sales for the producer women. Secondly, their sales are not our losses--strengthening and expanding the market for healthy foods derived from locally produced ingredients is likely to improve the sales of our products as well as theirs, a win-win situation which we view as positive.
III. Business partners are (1) Ola Verde S.A. Their role is in education and marketing. They are a socially responsible business dedicated to expanding the market for fair trade organic products from Nicaragua. They are located in Managua, Nicaragua. The added value they bring is in assuring continuity of consumer outreach through television, nutrition-related press releases, and speaking at public fora.
IV. Start-up funding will be used for:
(1) Business Plan Development: We plan to spend some of the money on helping the women’s producer groups and the private businesses develop mutually beneficial synergistic business plans.
(2) Marketing Campaign: Some of the money will be used to expand the marketing campaign for Maya Nut in Nicaragua. We will design this campaign to be flexible enough to be used in other Central American countries as the program expands.
(3) Product development for the international (USA or European) market. We plan to use part of the money to finish developing our ready-to-prepare muffin mix and take it to food trade fairs where we can meet representatives of fair trade healthy food companies.
(4) Nutrition Research: We would like to earmark another part of the money to conduct nutrition studies of Maya Nut with medical professionals to substantiate the blood pressure lowering effect of Maya Nut. The results of these studies will strengthen the marketing campaign.

Food security: Women producing Maya Nut for family consumption no longer experience periodic food scarcity
Nutrition: Maya Nut is more nutritious than either rice or corn. Children of women producers show decreased incidence of anemia and malnutrition
Women’s incomes: Women producers earn 25-50% more/year than before and this will increase further as our project increases in scope and quality
Women’s involvement in economic activities: 97% of women producers involved have never participated in an economic program before and are benefitting from this agrobusiness
Women’s empowerment: 95% of women producers have never earned cash income before
Family skills: The whole family participates in Maya Nut production which enhances the women producers standing in the family and sets an important example for the children. Moreover, we know and observe that as women have improved opportunities to change their lives in constructive ways, they are more likely to adopt public health educational interventions which have subsequent impact on their children' health and educational successes
Family Health: Women producers' incomes improve so that they can afford health care. They learn to be less fatalistic, to take advantage of public health services because they can see change happening in their own lives. Additionally, the Maya Nut stimulates breast milk production, and is high in iron, protein, calcium, and several of the water soluble and fat soluble vitamins. Because the producer women's families like eating the nut, family nutrition and health improve as a direct effect of eating the nut.
Biodiversity: Maya Nut trees provide food and habitat for wildlife