Colombia: PepsiCo opens Latin America’s most advanced and largest potato storage facility.

PepsiCo inaugurated its potato post-harvest and storage center in Tenjo, Cundinamarca, this Tuesday. This is the most advanced and largest potato storage center in Latin America, with a total investment of $80 billion. It has the capacity to store up to 20,000 tons of this product for up to six months, optimizing its production chain and providing the best service to hundreds of small and medium-sized potato farmers in the Cundinamarca highlands, speeding up unloading times fivefold and reducing logistics costs.

"At PepsiCo, we believe in the power of innovation to transform the Colombian countryside. With the inauguration of this Center, we reaffirm our commitment to small and medium-sized producers, offering them better service, access to cutting-edge technology, and a process that allows us to purchase and store their crops more efficiently and with greater security. This not only improves the efficiency of our production chain but also strengthens our long-term relationship with our potato farmers," said María Paula Cano, Senior Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at PepsiCo.

This new infrastructure offers an advanced logistics solution, integrating state-of-the-art cold storage technology and 24/7 online monitoring systems. This guarantees optimal potato storage without compromising quality, improves service efficiency, and ensures the continuous purchase of crops from local farmers, providing them with greater economic stability.

The opening of this center is one of several PepsiCo initiatives to strengthen long-term relationships with farmers. As the country’s largest industrial buyer of potatoes and plantains, with more than 90,000 and 25,000 tons purchased respectively, PepsiCo works closely with producers, supporting the development of their partnership models, providing technical assistance, and promoting sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices. All of this is done with the goal of caring for the land, increasing productivity, and ensuring a more prosperous future for farming communities and the country as a whole.

Begoña Aristy, VP and General Manager of PepsiCo Foods for the Andean Region, said of the importance for farmers: "It’s extremely important because we help with storage, and like us, you know that in Colombia many farmers are small and medium-sized. They don’t have the capacity to store, and with climate change, there are either droughts or heavy rains, and they have to harvest quickly, and if they don’t have storage, the entire potato will be damaged in less than a month. We remain committed to the countryside and the country. We are committed to innovation. This center will build a value chain for our farmer partners."