Celebrating another Agribusiness Sustainability Summit!
This year’s 8th annual Agribusiness Sustainability Summit was outstanding for the quality, creativity, and originality of the 18 participating projects. The event presented initiatives generated by second-year students in the Agribusiness Program. There was also a unique opportunity for students of the graduating Class of 2022 to show their business proposals, subjected to the same quality standards as the sophomores.
Through the Summit, EARTH’s young entrepreneurs propose and implement business initiatives, many of them linked to solving major global issues such as poverty, hunger, climate change, inequity, and social injustice.
The event was held in a hybrid format with in-person and virtual activities involving the EARTH community at the Guacimo Campus. We are thankful for the support of our partners who made the high-level event possible, including the Globe Foundation, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), the Government of Germany, Mipymes Verdes, and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
“It is a privilege for the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to be a sponsor of this important event that presents original and sustainable projects developed by EARTH University students. We support and commit to creating innovative businesses in the Central American region. We know these projects will be inventive and governed by sustainability principles. In addition, they have the potential to be developed in each of the students’ countries, focusing on reducing emissions, mitigating climate change, and generating social impact,” commented Dante Mossi of CABEI in her speech.
The winning initiatives
- Kuyá won first place with a pioneering project in passion fruit cultivation at the Guacimo Campus. The team is composed of Rubén Langston (Costa Rica), Anthony Ilalio Mbunju (Tanzania), Henry Naranjo Goya (Ecuador), Ricardo Vega Gónzalez (Panama), Rhema Oyedele (Nigeria), and Catherine Korkor Akplah (Ghana), all from the Class of 2024.
- Dakit-Ice received second place with a project focused on selling and producing milk-based ice cream. Javier Ubilla (Ecuador), Julio López (Guatemala), Jimena López (Guatemala), Mónica Arias (Costa Rica), María Elisa Miranda (Guatemala), and Regina Katongo (Zambia) comprise this team.
- Embuchidos took third place, featuring a company dedicated to producing high-quality sausages. The team includes Mario Umaña (Guatemala), Ana Fuentes (Guatemala), Juan Pérez (Dominican Republic), Perla López (Mexico), Wilson Muñoz (Colombia), and Faith Sakala (Zambia).
We congratulate the winning teams and all the participants for showing great passion and commitment to their business ideas. And we are deeply grateful to our partners who accompanied us in this much-needed process in our Academic Program.
