Today in Croix des Bouquets, President Jovenel Moise and USAID Haiti Mission Director Jene Thomas visited SHAISA, makers of Famosa tomato paste and ketsup, to attend the first production of Famosa made with tomatoes grown in Haiti.
Thanks to a partnership between SHAISA and ANAPAAH (Association Nationale des Agriculteurs pour L’Avancement de l’Agriculture Haitienne), a national association of small holder farmers with over 24,000 members, SHAISA hopes to replace 50% of its raw tomato material now imported from China with tomatoes produced right here in Haiti by 2018.
Both SHAISA and ANAPAAH are beneficiaries of the USAID LEVE program, which provided grants and extensive technical assistance which, among other things helped them obtain equipement and modernize operations, thus enabling a concerted effort all along the tomato value chain and end-to end production.
During his tour, Jene Thomas said: “This proves that there are great opportunities for the development of complete value chains by forming strategic partnerships between growers’ associations and private companies. These partnerships would leverage investment, create thousands of jobs along the value chain and develop national production and local economies”.
