Engineer Hortensia Solís Agüero
Manager of Sustainable I+D Projects
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Telephone: (506) 25412828
Fax: (506) 25412728

Worldwide, petroleum prices have been increasing remarkably in the last couple of years. As a result, there has been a drastic increase in production costs, foodstuff and transportation.

Coopedota is a company that looks for stability and improvement in the quality of life in the inhabitants of the Zona de los Santos. It has been investigating the last four years in the production of ethanol, to utilize the waste products that don’t compete with land and crops meant for human and animal consumption or fertilizers. These investigations have been worked on alongside the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT for it’s abbreviation in Spanish) with the participation of John Locke.

This project’s main objective is the strengthening of the value chains that can improve socio-economic wellbeing of banana and plantain producers, by means of providing technology to produce bioethanol in countries that are members of Fontagro.

This will be carried out through the development and implementation of a decentralized production system by means of bioethanol microplants, utilizing technologies and innovative information systems that permit optimizing productivity, reducing costs and protecting the environment. An investigation outline will be put into practice with the participation of small farmers, bioethanol producers and state regulation organizations.

The members of the investigation consist of the following countries and it’s respective entity:

Colombia: CIAT, Universidad de Manizales Colombia

Costa Rica: Coopedota R.L.

Ecuador: Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL)

Perú: Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria (INIA)

The cooperative expects to utilize varieties that are associated with coffee; this is the case of the guineo which is used to give shade to the coffee plantations. On most plantations this fruit isn’t consumed and goes to waste, which causes an excess of fruit that doesn’t compete with human and animal consumption.