Euro-Nat: Partnering Bolivian quinoa for 20 years

Posted - February 11, 2010

Euro-Nat: Partnering Bolivian quinoa for 20 years

By Angela Mallaroni

In 1988, entrepreneur Didier Perreol, discovered quinoa at a casual encounter during an exhibition in Geneva. He was looking for a unique cereal product to stand out from his 75 product line his firm Euro-Nat had recently introduced to natural health food stores in France.

Impressed with the grain, Mr Perreol went to Bolivia to meet with ANAPQUI, the only cooperative of small quinoa producers in the country at the time. With his first 500 kg order of Royal Quinoa, Mr Perreol went back home with the commitment to introduce quinoa to France. The emblematic company brand Primeal was born, and an intensive communications campaign followed.

Primeal Royal Quinoa was a success. It was versatile, easy to prepare and mix in many recipes and inspired Mr. Perreol and others to publish quinoa cookbooks. For the next ten years Euro-Nat imported quinoa from the producers in Bolivia and the Primeal brand entered every natural health food store in France. In 2001, Euro-Nat started distribution of quinoa products to major supermarket chains under private label.

To develop a stable project with constant delivery and traceability of the best quinoa available, Mr Perreol made a further commitment: to set up shop in Bolivia itself. In 1997, he founded Jatariy, (