REBEL WITH A CAUSE;
SOLAR DRYING IN PERU
After receiving information and advice from our ‘Practical Answers’ service in Peru, Bruno
Caracchini has followed up on his idea of producing and marketing dehydrated fruit. His
business is in the pilot stage and according to him, cannot go wrong.
A mechanical engineer by
profession, Bruno Caracchini
has always been determined
to run his own business.
“People always tell me I’m
crazy”, he told us as we
admired the Caraz landscape
from the top of a hill, “but I
consider myself a rebel”.
Bruno left his home town at
age twenty, training up in an
uncle’s engineering business
in Lima before returning to
his home town to raise his
children, Bruno and
Francesca.
From the top of the hill there is a good view of the houses, the main square and the river in
miniature. The sun is shining placidly, but Bruno Caracchini doesn’t smile. “Caraz is a time
bomb” he exclaimed, “More than 400 students leave school every year and there are not even
enough jobs for 10% of them…In Peru there are a thousand cities in the same situation as Caraz”.
This may explain Bruno’s constant efforts to become productive without depending on anyone - he
is thinking of his children and the future that awaits them, and has reached the conclusion that,
under no circumstances will they be “one more of the 400”.
Dreaming about fruit
In Caraz, people typically make their living
from farming, but that market is saturated.
“With the technical modernization of
agriculture, the market grew, but then pests
and pesticides appeared” Bruno told us.
“Consequently, the fruit produced reached
consumers with a high content of poison. In
my family, when we see perfectly shaped
shiny red fruits, we don’t buy them. We
choose the more bruised, lacklustre ones
because that means they have not been
processed and will not contain as much
poison”. He came up with the idea to get
around this situation through the dehydrated
fruit market, which prompted him to seek
the advice of Practical Action.
Practical Action, The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby, Warwickshire,
CV23 9QZ, UK
T +44 (0)1926 634400 | F +44 (0)1926 634401 | E infoserv@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org
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