Two months of fieldwork was conducted during the summer of 2014 in Nicaragua, through qualitative interviews the aims was to investigate the Value Chain of dried mango and its potential as an alternative income source for livelihood improvements for households in Manzano Uno, Nicaragua. The idea to investigate dried mango in particular originates from a conversation in the spring of 2012 with Ben Orton, co- founder of local NGO Waves of Hope, who considered the idea after witnessing the huge amounts of ripe mango falling to the ground and rutting away during the peak season in Manzano Uno. The research problem in a bigger context is related to the debate on how developing countries, and rural parts in particular, are often excluded from the benefits that come with a globalized market economy, since they often lack the tools to participate or do so on unfavorable terms. The idea of a Value Chain Analysis is to detect where along the production line value is added to a product from raw to finished good. Income Diversification comes in to the investigation and contributes to the conclusion that it would be favorable for livelihood improvements to households in Manzano Uno to diversify income sources, to create more secure and higher quality income. The value chain analysis is mainly based on information provided by Sol Simple, an organic-fruit drying plant in San Ramon, Nicaragua and is one out of two fruit processing enterprises in the country. They have been growing every year and have positive expectations of the future. Dried fruit and mango in particular seems to have good prospects for future demand as export products and one important addition is the sustainable, organic and Fairtrade markets which all enable higher product prices and thereby enable bigger shares to go back to the local producers. The federal incentives in Nicaragua include focus on the foreign investment to the country and quantity secondary education, which is concluded to not always be quality education. The high share of investments and entrepreneurships from foreigners are explained by the high security profile in the country, fertile lands and the lowest minimum wage in the region.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-40676 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hassan, Aisha |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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