Thread: Finca Organica in Boquete

Hello My name is Lea, I am Canadian. My husbands name is Pascal and he is French.

We have been living in Panama for the last 6 years in the capital city. Last January Pascal moved to Boquete to start an organic farm above Horqueta. I had to stay in the city for the kids school and we commute regularly to Boquete.

When we bought the land had not been cultivated for 5 years and the soil was then totally free from all chemicals. The soil is also very dark and rich and excellent for organic agriculture.

We have begun distributing the produce around the capital city as well as in Boquete.
On any given week we have :

carrots, turnips, brussel sprouts, parsely, cilantro, basil, rosemary, beets, potatoes, onions, green onions, spinach, a mix of different lettuces, arugula, brocoli, cabbage and more to come in January.

We are offering three different size baskets; small/15$ medium/20$ and large/25$

I am charging 4$ to deliver the produce to your door here in the city. Pascal delivers all the produce in the Boquete area for no additional charge. We are also looking to start delivering in Bocas del Toro area.

for any questions on how to try our produce please emails me at: amistadverde@hotmail.com

Hello Amistad Verde, welcome aboard. Enjoy the forum.

any plans to sell anything around the pedasi area ?

Maybe you can help and let me know know potatoes and strawberries are expensive in Panama. Both grown locally.

Best of luck

Right now we don't have any clients in Pedasi, we would have to find a cargo truck that goes there from either Boquete or Panama city. I am not sure the veggies would like to travel twice so better Boquete. If you ask around in your area and find more people maybe we can put something together. In the meanwhile Pedasi is a bit far for us. If you are ever in the Boqete area you could visit the farm and pick your own veggies to take home with you. It is a beautiful area and Pascal has done wonders with the land building terraces from bamboo.

Organic strawberries in the supermarket are selling for 6$ a small basket and 10$ the big basket. We are growing strawberries but we are in competition with the animals that are around the farm at night. Maybe that is why they charge so much! We haven't had any yet in our baskets. Potatoes on the other other hand go for aprox 2.50 the pound but since they are heavy that adds up quickly. I have heard comments that the locally gown potatoes are expensive at but before I lived in Panama I lived in Roatan, Honduras which is an island and where all the veggies were expensive so I can't remember anymore what is the price of an inexpensive potato. How much would you say?

Welcome!! You should think about taking your produce to the Tuesday Morning Meetings to sell.

Congrats!

We need more people like you in Panama.

Wish you were around the city.

Or better yet, get great exposure and advertising by donating a gift certificate for your produce at Bid 4 Boquete - HOME and go to the donate tab. It's for a really great cause and will get your name out there.

I am not familiar with the Tuesday meetings. Where does this take place and at what time? I would love to go.

I am delivering in Panama city on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday mornings.

The TMM is held at the BCP every Tuesday from 9 to 11. We have all kinds of vendors from indigenous selling jewelry and molas, to artisan bread and organic veggies. If you know where Romero's is, take the street on the right hand side and cross the bridge. The BCP is the large building on the right at the end of the block. The meetings can be anything from health insurance to Panamanian history, tax questions for US Ex-pats, almost anything. But the fun part is the market. It's a great place to get acquainted with the locals.

Amistad Verde

Re: Finca Organica in Boquete
Organic strawberries in the supermarket are selling for 6$ a small basket and 10$ the big basket. We are growing strawberries but we are in competition with the animals that are around the farm at night. Maybe that is why they charge so much! We haven't had any yet in our baskets. Potatoes on the other other hand go for aprox 2.50 the pound but since they are heavy that adds up quickly. I have heard comments that the locally gown potatoes are expensive at but before I lived in Panama I lived in Roatan, Honduras which is an island and where all the veggies were expensive so I can't remember anymore what is the price of an inexpensive potato. How much would you say?

Pardon me if I am wrong here. But I have read how things are so much inexpensive in Panama especially produce which is locally grown. I can't help but wonder why your prices appear to be much more higher than here back in the states. Such as potatoes. I can get five pounds for $1.99 on a good day. And strawberries around $3 a pint. Or does being "Organic" have much to do with the pricing.

Just wondering,

Len

Those are expensive all over. Last time potatoes were 80 cents at a chinos.

At the supermarket the other day the potatoes were at 1.20 / lbs but those aren't organic. They don't have organic potatoes that I know of in the supermarkets here. It fluctuates though but that is what I found this week.

As for the strawberries, the prices I gave you were for the imported ones. I haven't found local organic strawberries in Panama. We are still trying to grow them but the animals like them as much as we do.

Not everything here in Panama is cheap. I have been here for 6 years and the food has pretty much doubled since I got here. I lived in Honduras where the cost of living is really cheap, Panama is probably the most expensive of Central America but I couldn't say for Costa Rica that is one country I don't know well. When I go to Canada I realize that Panama is cheap but the US is cheap when you compare it to Canada too. The organic produce that you find in the supermarkets here is not locally grown so it is always more expensive. We would even like to start doing our own rice. We pay 7-8 dollars for a bag of organic rice here which is imported from the US. Maybe once Panama was cheap but it has changed in my opinion, it costs me much more to live here than to live in Honduras and there I was on an island where everything is more expensive because we have to bring it in by boat.