College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Non-AFRE Co-Principle Investigators: Don Taylor, Co-Director and Colin Collins, Marketing and Transportation Dept, MSU. Don Larson,

Project Name:           Market Coordination in the Development of the Cauca Valley Region of Colombia – LAMP  Country Study (Proyecto Integrado De Mercadeo Urbano Rural – PIMUR)*
Donor:                        Agency for International Development and the Government of Colombia
Contract No:              AID/LA-364 AID/CSD-786
Account No:               71-2035
Location:                    Colombia
Duration:                    September 1968 - 1970
Budget:                       A portion of LAMP Summary budget

Key MSU Faculty:     Harold Riley, "Co-Director (Agricultural Economics) and Donald Taylor, Co-Director (Marketing & Transportation); J. Shaffer, M. Weber, D. Larson, and K. Harrison, CO-Director of PIMUR (Agricultural Economics); C. Guthrie (Marketing & Transportation)

Documents:                (Click here to view)

Project Goals:           To conduct diagnostic studies of market coordination in the Cauca Valley region and to formulate recommendations to improve resource use efficiency and stimulate economic growth;  to train Colombian personnel in the technical aspects of economic studies and to contribute to a better understanding of market coordination processes in economic development.

Project Plans/Objectives:

• To describe and analyze the urban food distribution system serving Cali, including socio-economic characteristics of consumers and their relation to existing shopping patterns, and the existing system of food wholesaling and retailing.
• To describe and evaluate the vertical production-distribution systems for meat, poultry, eggs, milk, selected fruits and vegetables, and grains.
• To describe and evaluate the performance of special industries in the food system. including technical farm inputs, food processing, packaging, and transportation.
• To analyze manufactured consumer goods industries and residential construction, including the investigation of some public aspects of market coordination (e.g., laws and regulations), information, communication, and credit.
• To diagnose the performance of the existing system of market coordination, and to make recommendations to enhance its efficiency.

Cooperating Institutions: The Colombian Autonomous Regional Corporation of the Cauca Valley (CVC), Specific Projects Section of the National Department of Planning, Promotora de Abastecimientos, Division of Social Sciences at the University of Valle, the National Marketing Agency IDEMA, Sociedad de Agricultures del Valle, Empresas Municipales of Cali, Systems Research. Inc., Peace Corps, the Faculty of Agronomy at Palmira and Cornell University

Project Summary: The Colombia marketing project constituted the largest one undertaken under LAMP with involvement extending into the mid-1970s.  A series of 16 technical reports was generated providing a much more detailed description and analysis of specific components of the regional economic system than is presented in the summary report.  In line with other LAMP projects, the emphasis here was on collaboration and cooperation with Colombian nationals and institutions. LAMP personnel provided consultative and advisory services as well as technical direction for the project.

After project research was completed, K. Harrison, the Co-Director of PIMUR, remained in Colombia, along with D. Larson, to help promote some of the recommendations the project summary made, including the development of plans and financing of the construction of a wholesale market in Cali.  As a result of the joint efforts of Harrison, Larson, and a number of Colombian nationals in the Ministry of Agriculture, a semi-private corporation - CORABASTOS -was organized to construct a new wholesale market outside of Bogota to help improve that city's food distribution system.  Over the years the work of Corbastos has been a significant success and led to the formation of many other large urban area wholesale markets in Colombia.  View here a photo showing Professor Riley and Dr. John Hannah, Director of USAID and former President of MSU, with leaders and technical/marketing staff of Corabastos in 1971 visiting the construction site for the new market.   Click here to view a video celebrating 35 years of operation of Corabastos.

Further AID funding was obtained for subsequent projects described under the title "Colombia Marketing" and "Assistant to AID Mission/Colombia".

Documents From/About This Project:

• Market Coordination in the Development of the Cauca Valley Region - Colombia. 1970. By Harold Riley, Kelly Harrison, Nelson Suarex, James Shaffer, Don Henley, Don Larson, Colon Guthrie, and David Lloyd-Clare.  Research Report No. 5. Marketing in Developing Communities Series,  Latin American Studies Center, MSU.
• La Coordinación de Mercadeo y el Desarrollo Económico del Valle del Cauca : Informe Final de PIMUR / Proyecto Integrado de Mercadeo Urbano Rural del Valle.
• Informe técnico 1-16 (Proyecto Integrado de Mercadeo Urbano Rural del Valle - PIMUR)
• Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones sobre Mercadeo Agropecuario.  1973. Informe General Sobre CABSA -Central de Abastecimentos de Bogota, SA. [Bogota]: Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones sobre Mercadeo Agropecuario. Bogota, Colombia
• Technological Dualism and Unemployment in Colombia. 1972. By Alvaro Silva. Plan B Paper
• Evaluation of Food Market Reform: Corabastos, Bogota.  I976. By Alvario Silva.  Ph.D. Dissertation.  (Full text version )
• Problems of Reorganization of Cali Food Retailers' Procurement Activities in the Planning of a New Central Wholesale Market Facility.  1972. Michael T. Weber. Master's Thesis, 1972  (Full Text Version)  
•   Improving the Organization of Fruit and Vegetable Production-Assembly Systems in the Coffee Zone of Colombia: A Case Study in the La Mesa Region. 1972. By J. Pablo Torrelba.  Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University

*This description is adapted from work by Nancy E. Horn, an MSU alumnus from the Anthropology Department, published in 1985 “A Project History of Michigan State University’s Participation in International Development for the period 1951 – 1985”.  See AFRE Emeritus Faculty - Acknowledgements