Paul Riera

Tierra Orgánica

Hi, my name is Paul Riera and I am the Co-Founder of Tierra Orgánica. The organic company has been founded 2 years ago between me and my Agriculture Engineer friend at the Ecuadorian coast region.

Me and my companion are both passionate for social-economic development and environmental sustainability. We decided to found Tierra Orgánica after a deep research on the reality of farmers in our country. During this investigation, we found out that there are some big problems every small farmer has. Such as a lack of facilities to get nursery gardens, no technical advice in organic production for small farmers, a too long supply chain from the farmer to the final customer which leads to very low prices for the farmers products etc.

We as Tierra Orgánica decided to create an education project which aims to develop people in economic and social aspects as they produce organic fruits with our support. We manage our own nursery gardens, and sign contracts securing the buy of their fruit with baseline prices for their organic certified products. We manage the first organic-group certification in fruits different than bananas in Ecuador.

Our project started just one year after a huge earthquake hit Ecuador in 2016. With Tierra Orgánica we are working on giving new opportunities to our farmers to restore their lives after this disaster.

Interview with Paul

N&M: What products do you grow and what’s special about your products?
Paul: For the moment we are focusing on exotic organics. Our three main products are small yellow pitahaya, yellow passion fruit and plantain. What is special about our products is that they are produced in a regenerative and artisanal way by small producers. By producing food this way, you increase biodiversity, you enrich soils and improve watersheds, while capturing carbon in soils. Our farmers work by hand and the products are 100% organic. When you eat one of our products, you should know that you are supporting organic production in our region and you’re helping our goal to develop people through organic production.

N&M: What motivated you to begin a business with organic products?
Paul: We are what we eat. If you eat clean and natural products, your mind and body will be grateful. This way we can help the small farmers who produce certified biological products. We give them the assurance of the market and a shorter value chain. We find it very important that the farmers get paid a fair price for their products and to promote biological farming in our country.

N&M: What do you like most about your work?
Paul: The people. The people we work with are amazing and it is so valuable to see them overcome difficult times and learn from mistakes. We mainly work with poor people who haven’t had much education so it’s our job to educate them in growing organic fruits. We want to fulfill their wishes and work with them for a very long time to come.

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soil

The soil at the Ecuadorian Coast Region has a lot of diversity. This leads to a lot of possibilities to produce different fruits. To keep it this way, it’s very important to keep the soils healthy and vital. Tierra Orgánica has a crop rotation plan to keep the soil from getting used up. We also help to keep the soils vital by making our own compost from the organic waste our company has. It is very important we have a soil analysis every year in order to prevent erosion and run off in every way.

biodiversity

Our farmers are located in the Ecuadorian coast region where we mostly work in Santa Domingo and Manabí. These are the most productive areas in our country. The difference in altitude and diversity in soil composition leads to a lot of possibilities to produce different fruits. The highest point in Santa Domingo is around 2500 meters over sea level and Manibí has some of the most beautiful beaches in Ecuador. Because of this difference in altitude and soil, we are able to plant everything that grows in a tropical climate in those conditions.

individual

Tierra Orgánica started as an education project to increase the development of our producer’s knowledge of organic production through constant technical support. We do this in a company where everybody is free to express themselves and where personal development is the focus. In the meantime, we also try to develop as a company by constantly receiving feedback and recommendations to improve ourselves which leads to an improvement of our workers. We maintain a total transparency policy, so we try to use it to promote collaboration and innovation.

society

As founders of Tierra Orgánica, we think it’s very important to have an honest company. There is no discrimination and we believe in gender equality. To spread our voice of this way of agriculture, we plan on promoting organic farming in high schools. We are currently only focusing on educational activities for our farmers. Our workers have working contracts with Tierra Orgánica to give them more security and a fair price for their products. The contracts are very honest and mention for us to buy all the fruit the farmers produce if the farmers produce them in an organic way following our recommendations.

water

Water is a very important aspect in growing biological products. We are very lucky we don’t have to deal with water scarcity in our region. Our producers are very small, which is why their water impact is minimum. Organic farming ensures that the water used to feed the crops is not contaminated by pesticides and artificial fertilizers, so we only use clean water.

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