The Ipecacuanha plant is native to the wet tropical areas of Central America. Nowadays, the perennial is cultivated under the forest cover of the region of Rio San Juan, or sometimes under the cover of shade nets. The root of the plant is traded in the region of El Castillo, as base product for the international pharmaceutical industry, as far as back as the 17th century.
The roots are sold without any additional value. The trade is quite informal and irregular. The producers of the roots are exposed to irregular buyers, who transport the goods informally to the neighboring country to be exported from there, Costa Rica, to countries like Germany, Belgium, France, England, Honduras, India and China.
Since 2017, a group of multi-discipline experts has joined forces to assist the producers on legal matters and agriculture science. Farmers who joined the initiative are now registered producers, obtained phytosanitaire certificates from the ministry of agriculture, the department of product quality, IPSA. With assistance from the same IPSA, there have been experimental exports to the Netherlands and Costa Rica. Additionally, the species and its products are now officially registered as export product. We expect this year to be able to enhance exports and buy the product from the farmers for a fair price. A sort of fair trade. The farmers joint the Cooperativa de Producción del Rio San Juan.
The agricultural assistance will be continued in order to get as close as possible to complete organic production.
The aim of this Ipecac project is to identify international partners to trade with, guarantee a high quality product, in order to bring this traditional export product back on the map in Nicaragua This includes to promote its high alkaloid content. The Ipecac from Rio San Juan has been tested many times and proved to be richer in alkaloids.
Our initiative has started with 11 of the 30 known producers in the municipality of El Castillo, department of Rio San Jan. Most of them inherited the farming from family traditions, and continue in their traditional way; the planting of vegetative multiplication of plants to be planted in the forest. Use of artificial fertilizers is limited due to the high organic content of the forest soils. Therefor, the protection of the forest is part of their activity.
For this year, 2023, we have a capacity for sales of 2800 Kg of dried root of the Psycotria Epicacuanha.
Projected production Ipecac lots
This trade is in hands of the specialized company Integral Lawfirm s.a. as a facilitator for the purchasing part, inscribed in the commercial registry under code MG00-22-005309.
