Faces of the Crisis

Josue Ramos, Street Vendor,
Lima, Peru

Josue is a street vendor who belongs to the association of vendors of Downtown Lima. He is also part of the Leadership of the Lima Federation of Street Vendors, FEDEVAL, of which he was one of the founders in the 80s. He has endured many battles with municipal and police authorities along the years, to keep his livelihood as a vendor. Josué sells natural food products, mainly potato chips, sweet potato chips, and popcorn, which he cooks and packs himself every day after buying the inputs early at 5:30am at the local wholesale market. He works with his daughter. She has a fixed stall outside the Central Market of Lima Downtown for which she pays 200 soles per month. Josue vends around the streets of Downtown Lima. He used to earn 30 soles per day (10 US$) a few months ago, working 10-hour days. At present, business has decreased, and he is getting only 18 soles per day. Competition has intensified in the last six months, and persecution from municipal security services too, as more traders turn to the streets.

Josue has taken several measures to face the current economic crisis. To improve his product and create new varieties of it, he has obtained funds through his turn on the pandero (a rotating savings mechanism by which all participants make a monthly contribution towards a collective pot of money, and each of them takes the fund once, at one month in the year). He has also located better and cheaper suppliers, and is expanding his area of work to sell at other places in the city, including the popular festivals that take place on weekends in different districts. He has not increased the unit price per package but has reduced the amount of food per package. His daughter knows a bit about computers and the web. She created an email address for him through which he offers some products, and will create a Blog for him to market his products, in the search for new clients. He also aspires to learn more about information technology to expand his opportunities. Even though the volumes he sells are small, he is very proud of his own recipes and knows his customers seek him out because of the quality and taste of his products.

photo: Josue, far right in the picture wearing a red vest, at the Focus Group Discussion on the impact of the global recession conducted by FEDEVAL and WIEGO.

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