Tierra Fertil, Spanish Version Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Hortifruti´s Tierra Fertil (Productive Land) Program was created in Costa Rica in the 1970s as a result of an initiative carried out by the Uribe family, founders of Corporacion de Supermercados Unidos - Corporacion de Companias Agroindustriales group (CSU-CCA). With only five supermarkets, in 1973, the group had a hard time providing its points of sale with quality farming products to react to its consumers´ demands. As a result, that year, Hortifruti-a firm owned by CCA- started to organize Costa Rican farmers in order to create some business criteria, including profit margins and maximum and minimum quality standards. Once these standards were determined, Hortifruti continued to introduce generation plans based on market demands.

Safer and more hygienic merchandise conditions were boosted both at the packaging and transportation stages, including special requirements for suppliers. Small farmers who were unable to satisfy these requirements and who lived along the way to a point of sale, had their produce picked up at the farm. In 2005, Wal-Mart, the largest retailer on earth, purchased CSUCCA. Strategies, business model, management practices and work procedures of the just-obtained organization were revised in order to correct them to Walt-Mart's equivalents. Given that the Tierra Fertil program had entailed challenges in technical and economic infrastructure development, education, financial resources and cultural differences, the initiative represented a new conceptualization of the "normal" value proposition in addition to a profound understanding of local demands and CSUCCA considered that Wal Mart Central America should continue the plan.

Tierra Fertil, Spanish Version Case Study Solution

PUBLICATION DATE: November 01, 2009 PRODUCT #: SKS122-HCB-SPA

This is just an excerpt. This case is about GLOBAL BUSINESS