South America

TechnoServe’s Simon Winter visits Peru and discovers a burgeoning cocoa industry.

Entrepreneurs in a remote region of Chile are taking their businesses to the next level with support from TechnoServe’s Potencia Patagonia program.

Geister Cachique remembers the days when he and his family depended on coca plants to earn a living. Coca, which can be processed into cocaine, was one of the only crops that would grow well on their marginal land in the community of Las Mercedes, located in Peru’s tropical San…

TechnoServe works to help farmers in San Martin, Peru increase productivity and improve the quality of their crops, promote value-added processes such as organic certification and foster related entrepreneurship and small business growth.

The Peruvian Amazon is one of the world´s most celebrated sources of cocoa, producing more than 26 tons of cocoa beans in 2011. In the past year, Peru exported more than $120 million worth of chocolate and cocoa beans, continuing to meet worldwide demand for the high-quality products native to…

How can we stimulate entrepreneurship in the developing world? For TechnoServe, this is more than just a theoretical question.

In the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, three organizations are uniting to implement an economic development project that is generating benefits for 60 farmers who live on settlements created after agrarian reform.

The great Peter Drucker once said, “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” The story of Liset and Ximena Contreras embodies this quote and much more.

In Nicaragua, Iveth Juárez, a small business owner who processes and sells cereal to the local market, had attended seminars, workshops, courses and training sessions on accounting and finance. But at the end of each session, she always felt the same sense of confusion.

The region is also known for the hospitality of its Afro-Colombian population – a community that historically has suffered from neglect and discrimination. Now, however, the Nuquí community is working hard to preserve the region’s beauty while also sparking economic opportunities through eco-tourism. One of the leaders of this…