Peruvian "Lost Crops of the Incas"

The Andes has traditionally been a source of excellent food and medicinal plants. In 1998 a co-operative was created to carry on this tradition, offering Andean natural, functional foods, of outstanding benefit to health, made from the highest quality raw material. They work with small farmers to cultivate, process and market products within the organic system of production, where careful steps are taken to process products as little as possible and at low temperatures, in order to preserve the nutritional and medicinal properties of the products. Tree-Harvest has worked with this co-operative since 2001. The important principles behind the Peruvian Co-operative, which Tree-Harvest supports, is that they work based on: i) quality rather than quantity, ii) diversity, fostering Andean mega-biodiversity, not homogenization, iii) promoting an organic system of production, iv) income distribution among the people that participate as suppliers, transformers, and traders, and v) social responsibility, following the principles of fair trade. They work in association with small farmers, generating employment for the local population; they offer advice on their organization as small entrepreneurs by providing training and financial support, thereby raising the living standards of the small farmers, while at the same time increasing their crop yield.

Some of our Peruvian products are known as "the lost crops of the incas. They were little known plants of the Andes with promise for worldwide cultivation - this included maca, inca berries, lucuma, purple corn and yacon.