April 2020 Update – The Red Cross, Local Demand & Greenhouse Availability

Red Cross Donation & Employee Bonuses

Paraguay still has a fairly small amount of confirmed cases of the Covid-19 virus (213 as of today) and is starting to move its economy back to normality. Nevertheless, as elsewhere in the world, the country’s lockdown policy is having a significant economic impact, especially for poor and lower income families.

To help some of those worst affected in our local communities, we made a food donation to the Red Cross of Nueva Italia which included about 1 ton of rice, as well as meat, vegetables and citrus fruits. We also distributed food parcels direct to families in La Colmena and are planning to make further donations in the coming weeks.

In addition, while other companies have fired people or reduced salaries down to 30%, we have paid an additional bonus for March to most of our employees, since many of them lack their spouse’s second income right now. We don’t downsize nor do we reduce payments during this crisis (even though we are legally entitled to). We consider our employees as part of our family. Here are some photos of our recent food donations:

High Local Demand for Our Produce

Below are some photos of the recent oranges harvest on our La Colmena plantation and the vegetables harvest from the 8 operational greenhouses on our Nueva Italia plantation.

All this produce was sold directly to the local market where, even without the current disruptions to global food supply chains, most oranges and vegetables are imported from neighbouring countries. We’re increasingly in high demand with local distributors because we can deliver our produce immediately (and hence fresher) and at better prices (because of the lower transportation cost and exclusion of import taxes).

Vegetable Greenhouses Almost Sold Out

The increased demand from investors for the greenhouses in the first quarter of this year means we currently only have 5 full greenhouses left for sale. Please contact your sales representative if you want to reserve one of these final units.

Thank you again for your interest in our agriculture opportunities. As always, don’t hesitate to contact us for further information.

Stay safe and well.

The Agri Terra & Paraguay Ag Invest Team!