Benita Garcia found in the agriculture organic your life purpose. The work of producers in cultivating food organic in a market led by products traditional, and the growing interest of people in buying food increasingly healthycreated the need for a point of sale that brought producers and consumers closer.
Inspired by this reality, García founded the “Market Organic”, an establishment that only sells crops and products derivatives made without chemicals or pesticides.
Since its beginnings in 2011 until today, 2,369 customers have stopped at some point to acquire vegetablesfoodstuffs, oils, meats, eggs, dairy products or derivatives products totally natural, from the hand of a network of producers organic and artisanal projects that include 25 farmers and 118 entrepreneurs who supply the business from 12 provinces of the country.
What began with the sale in Mirador Sur of a shipment of tomatoes organic at a “symbolic” value, it escalated to the supply of food and vegetables on its terrace, supplied by eight producers. Today, Benita’s entire house has been adapted as a minimarket, integrating boxes, shelves, refrigerators and ATMs that give life to a business. dynamicand employing a team of 13 people who assist him.
“He market it arose very spontaneously; as almost all ideas arise: out of some need. We did not see the intention of saying ‘we are going to do a business to get rich’, but to motivate the producers to plant, so that they see a benefit for the effort they are making for a type of agriculture (…) with a production which is a little slower,” he assured Free Diary.
The continuity of an initiative
Although his entry into market evolved progressively, García specifies that the business did not begin “overnight”, but rather sought to give continuity to the “Market Ecological“, a similar initiative promoted by the Agriculture and Environment Foundation, a non-profit entity whose purpose was to support the national ecology.
As a civil engineer by profession specialized in ecology and the environment, García was able to work alongside her leader, Andrea Brecht, on educational and training projects linked to the agriculture organic.
This allowed him to come into contact with a network of small local producers and learn first-hand about the processes linked to the cultivation of products of high consumption naturally, such as bananas, cassava, tomatoes or the chilies.
Once the Foundation decided to close its doors in the country in 2010 – and thus complete the work of the Market Ecological–, the engineer quickly realized that the country lacked a space that offered food that they were only organic and natural.
“We had people who were producing organically, but they had nowhere to put those products differentiated from conventional ones; then little by little, and very timidly, we began to bring those products here (to Santo Domingo)”, he remarked.
In its 13 years of operations, Benita recognizes how much interest in the production organic in the country, which has allowed it to expand the business, with a catalog of up to 872 products available.
“As this is not a very abundant activity, almost everyone who is linked to organic matters knows about usand over time it becomes easier, because people approach us (…); many of my customers They have become my suppliers,” he explained.
The products further defendants in it Market Organic are those that are difficult to produce ecologically in the country, such as carrots, potatoes, tomatoescubanela and bell peppers, beets, broccoli, and cauliflower.
“Those are the most defendantsbecause the consumer knows that it costs a lot to produce thembecause they are so good (in their flavor), that even pests love them,” he highlighted.
Selection of the products organic
Before placing a product in her business, the engineer makes sure to visit the producer’s farm or the entrepreneur’s business, to know the conditions in which they work and make sure that the products are really products are being cultivated without the intervention of pesticides, herbicides, pesticides or other types of chemicals.
He assured that, just as it has certified producers, it also sells the products from families of farmers who harvest in their own yard, and with whom they have established a relationship of trust over the years.
The entrepreneur believes that the country should continue advancing in obtaining a seal of agriculture organicwhich allows producers to demonstrate the quality of their products organic at prices that are affordable.
“There are people who are doing many good things but they have no way to prove it; it makes me very sad, because many times we focus so much on protocols that we lose the essences“he noted.
The public
In the early years of Market Organic, foreigners were the public that came most to buy. They were French, Italians, Germans, Spanish or Americans who were looking for products organic.
However, the growth and popularity of the business means that today Dominicans are the majority. Currently, at Market Organic 447 attend customers who actively supply themselves from the premises, or place orders at home, according to business records.
People of all ages and with different health conditions go there. García indicates that he serves people who are on diets feeding strict food requirements healthyas is the case of oncology patients who are referred to them by nutritionists and naturopathic doctors. customers of the Market Organic, as well as people with a pre-existing condition that needs to integrate food healthier in their diet.
However, he is also surprised by the number of young and healthy people who come, aware that the feeding healthy It must be a priority. “This year, I had the immense satisfaction of a family with a girl who was going to turn 15, and asked her mother that the gift for her 15th was a purchase at the Market Organic. It was shocking for me to see that the children are focusing on the issue of feeding and health,” he recalled.
Agreements of price fair
García estimates that the network of farmers and entrepreneurs that supplies the Market Organic receives up to 70% of the profits for each of the products that are put up for sale, which are paid to them every week.
He points out that he has been able to reach agreements price fair with the producers in which, instead of buying a certain item per unit, they charge them per pound “to ensure the sale” of their products. productsbeing themselves the ones who set the price based on its costs and the effort invested. García tries to maintain the price agreed upon, regardless of whether the product increases in value due to scarcity, or plummets due to abundance.
“We develop those values of price fair and that has impacted their lives, because you know that one of the problems in the country is that, many times, the farmer because all your life in one production and it’s ready for harvest, but then it falls, and he loses everything,” he said.
He Market Organic is supplied every Monday with transport, paid for by the business, which goes to collect the crops from the farm, which prevents the farmer incur shipping costs for that merchandise.
In the near future, Benita García hopes to find a larger location to provide better service to her clients. “It has been a miracle that we are still here, because this is a rented house that I rented for a home, and it was little by little, very subtly, that the business developed,” he acknowledged. Likewise, he hopes to be able to systematize and make it even more efficient the tasks of the business to be able to delegate it to its employees, and move more to the field to continue knowing, interacting and helping more producers.”I do not dream of having many branches, nor of growing horizontally, but rather of strengthening the point in which I am . And that the Government, and other organizations, dedicate themselves to developing organic markets, supporting them and multiplying this at the national level,” he expressed.
