A taste like honey

A new perspective for an old Mexican symbol.

 

HUANCABAMBA, Peru – Laumaché Village, located to the northwest of this Andean capital city, was going to begin the commerce of agave syrup, locally called miel de méjico. This cousin of the aloe vera, but bigger, is better worldwide known to be the origin of the most representative liquor of Mexico – tequila.

 

Although Laumaché wouldn’t complement the offer of Huancabamba Valley’S alcoholic beverages, led by the liquor of ground cherry and followed by elder’s and the cañazo, tried to open a way in the honey market. The competence here is another bag’s flour – sugar, instead—because the most is developed at the lowlands due to the large dry forest acres, where the bees are in charge of providing the golden and colloid sweet fluid.

 

For many years, the example of medium industry with communitarian participation has been Santa María de Locuto, Piura River left bank, in front of Tambograndé City. Santa María got displaying its products at the supermarket circuit of Piura, the department’s capital city, and Lima, Peru’s capital city. Even it was launched abroad like a souvenir because it’s a stop for international tourists in a sort of informal circuit.

 

Santa María’s offer also includes the wide food product line made of carob. However, its problem is the climate fluctuation. The temperature stimulates the flowering and the commodity of the bees is there, those, under a tempered weather, produce one of the most appreciated honeys across Peru.

 

The cold doesn’t stimulate the flowering, so the whole value chain breaks up affecting the human being, who is in its end. Apparently, the agave is not too susceptible to the weather variations. It grows without problems at the yoonga eco-region, what means between 1650 and 8250 feet altitude (Laumaché is over 6600), and unlike the process depending on the bees, the plant does all the job.

 

It seems the competence is similar until we realize a geographic detail: to take the syrup out of Laumaché, it will have travel for 30 minutes to 1 hour to Huancabamba, then 6 hours to Piura even provided it’s not raining. The Santa María production takes less than an hour to get to Piura.

 

Municipal pulling

The entrepreneurs of Laumaché were receiving support of Huancabamba Municipality, as they announced to the press. Meanwhile, the municipality eased the road to Huancabamba City that replaced the tortuose way they had before. FACTORTIERRA wanted to know what the local government’s remaining relief would be, but the interview with the Tourism Office, in charge of the project, was not possible to appoint.

 

However, Huancabamba was beginning another entrepreneurship aside – an ambitious promotion plan that, even, took it to have a room at the Museum of Nation in Lima for almost 1½ months. Between June and July 2013, the Andean province glossed because of one of key natural patrimonies of Piura – Huaringas Lakes. Meanwhile, what do we serve the miel de méjico with?

 

Liliana Alzamora in Tambograndé and Luis Zevallos in Chiclayo collaborated to this story. © 2013 Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved.