Export development and services project (522-0207), FPX component (Federation of Honduran Exporters and Producers)

The evaluation focused on a project component to assist the Federation of Honduran Exporters and Producers (FPX). The project achieved its objectives. Agricultural exports exceeded $30 million in 1990, and total exports exceeded $128 million between 1984 and 1990. FPX-supported operations also contributed 40% to export earnings of selected NTAEs during 1992. A total of 15,254 agricultural jobs were created, more than 10,500 in the shrimp industry alone. Crops directly assisted included shrimp, melons, sweet onions, cacao, ginger, berries, and asparagus. The market information services provided by FPX"s documentation center (CENDOC) are among the best offered by NTAE institutions in the region. Also, support to producers and exporters participating in international trade shows positively affected NTAE development. Despite the project"s many positive outcomes, FPX in its present form is dysfunctional. Its development as a self-sustaining export advisory institution was hampered by a lack of focus, exacerbated by several major restructurings of the institution. FPX"s efficiency and effectiveness and that of its predecessor organization (FEPROEXAAH) in implementing the project were unacceptable. FPX does not have the capability to provide continuing support to the export sector after the project ends. Its PX business holdings should be divested as soon as possible, as they cannot be economically sustained, and USAID support should not continue after the PACD. While it was recommended that the CENDOC marketing library be relocated to the Honduran Agricultural Research Foundation (FHIA), FPX refused to do this. USAID/ES therefore acquired the PROEXAG library from USAID/Guatemala and transferred it to FHIA. The following lessons were learned. (1) The implementing organization must have sharply focused activities and a clear definitions of its mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and plans. (2) In general, export development organizations should engage in a business activity only if it is directly related to export development needs and alternate means of providing the service are not available. (3) The commodity systems approach used by FPX for product development (e.g., research, seed selection, trial plots, crop cultivation, harvest, selection, grading, packing, cooling, storage, transportation, marketing, and sales) is a valid method for increasing NTAEs.