Localizing food systems in El Salvador

Informing the operational and sales strategy for a social impact food distributor as it enters El Salvador’s Mom & Pop store market.

Location/Time:
El Salvador

Type
Graduate Consultancy

Partner(s)
Acceso, NYU

My Role
Design Researcher, Business Consultant

Time:
Winter ‘22/’23

Duration:
4 weeks

Challenge

Smallholder farmers in El Salvador are often excluded from domestic markets as local buyers opt to purchase cheaper imported produce from informal markets.

As a social impact food distributor, Acceso El Salvador seeks to eliminate middle men in local food systems, cutting costs on smallholder farmers’ produce and selling it to local markets so these farmers get more profit. In the next five years, Acceso plans to use a USAID grant to triple its annual revenue by supplying local produce to domestic Mom & Pop (M&P) stores: a women-owned sales channel that makes up 70% of mass consumption in El Salvador.

Acceso wanted to understand the pain points of M&P store owners to create a market entry strategy that served these needs.

Process

Discover
- Farm and Collection/Distribution Center Immersions: conducted a walk-through of the produce supply chain from smallholder farms to collection and distribution centers
- Expert Interviews: mapped out the needs of key actors within the produce supply chain by interviewing two Acceso sales team members, one distribution technician, one collection center technician, and two smallholder farmers
- M&P Storeowner Interviews: conducted in-depth interviews with 24 M&P store owners mapping out the high’s and low’s of their current produce supply process.
- Participant Observation: perceived the quality, selection, and display of produce of M&Ps
- Customer Shopalongs: shadowed two customers of M&P stores and two of supermarkets to identify the unique benefits/drawbacks of shopping for produce within those contexts
Define
- Created M&P store segmentations based off of store type, inventory, and size variations
- Mapped out the current supply chain process and identified key frictions along the supply chain
- Identified M&P owners’ top three pain points with produce acquisition process
Develop
- Mocked up prototypes for the ideal produce supply chain flow and tested with M&P owners
- Designed an ideal supply chain flow with M&P owners
Deliver
- five recommendations for how Acceso can design a new supply chain to target M&P owners
- two recommendations for go-to-market strategy
- in-person presentation to Acceso’s C Suite and Board

Multi-Methods Research: I conducted problem framing, primary research, and desk research as well as on market strategies.

Facilitation & Project Management: on my team of six (five fellow students and one Acceso sales director), my role was to leverage my facilitation experience to create the discussion guides and co-lead the interviews. My teammate - a native Spanish speaker - led the interview, and I translated and took notes in English. I also created timelines for the synthesis and deck creation portion.

Analysis & Synthesis: I led the team in brainstorming insights, spotting themes across insights, creating recommendations, and outlining M&P supply journey and M&P shop segmentation

Storytelling & Presenting: I developed the deck structure using Acceso’s template.

My Role

Walk-throughs in Acceso’s distribution center (left) and collection center (right)

Interview with Mom and Pop store owner in San Salvador

Group data synthesis, theme spotting, and insights creation using Miro

Presentation in front of Acceso C Suite, sales team, and class

Outcome

Our team outlined the M&Ps’ current and ideal produce supply journey, defined M&P segments, and created an M&P shop map. These deliverables served as key puzzle pieces for the two go-to market strategies we recommended to Acceso’s C Suite and sales team as they entered the M&P market: 1) targeting a specific M&P shop segment OR 2) targeting a particular neighborhood with a variety of segments within.