Entrepreneurship awarded in PERUMIN Inspira 2023 coordinates possible alliance with Compañía Minera Antapaccay to boost the project in Espinar.

Nostoc is a venture from Cusco that operates at more than 3,000 m.a.s.l. collecting cushuro, a seaweed with a high iron content, which they transform into nutraceutical gummies to fight anemia. They are currently completing the process to get a sanitary registry number so that they can commercialize the product.

“We are almost completing the process of the sanitary registration, which will allow us to sell our nutraceutical gummies. We are also beginning the clinical testing phase to verify the efficacy of our gummies in children in the communities,” Soledad Huaypuna, one of the founders, explained to the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP).

This project was created by six women, including economists, biologists, and chemists, and it won the special recognition of the International Potato Center (CIP Agrilac) awarded as part of PERUMIN Inspira, a PERUMIN 36 program that promotes social entrepreneurship in high Andean areas.

“PERUMIN Inspira is one of the most important competitions in which we have been able to participate as it opened several doors to us. For this year, 2024, we are creating projects of great social impact and sustainable development to build share value between entrepreneurship, community, and mining companies in the area of Espinar, where I am from,” said Huaypuna.

In this sense, she highlighted that their participation in the program allowed them to get in contact with Compañía Minera Antapaccay, with whom they are in contact to evaluate the possibility of strengthening this project for the benefit of the population of Espinar and the reduction of anemia.

Nostoc’s history

Soledad tells us that Nostoc was born in 2020. Four of the six founders come from farming communities of the highlands, where they witnessed that anemia was a major problem. “We met at an entrepreneurship event and started the Nostoc project in 2020,” she remarked.

Cushuro as a research topic and its value in fighting anemia became the thesis topic of one of the founders, and now the project is being finalized. At the moment, they are working with six farming communities in Cusco, represented by approximately twenty families.

“As the rainy season has started, we are taking up the harvesting of cushuro and the research on it. For the communities to provide us with cushuro, there has to be quality control,” she emphasized

Soledad thanked PERUMIN Inspira for giving them several courses that allowed them to broaden their knowledge on issues of social impact, community relations, nutraceutical themes, cushuro research, among others. Moreover, this year they will continue to receive digital technical and legal advice, mentoring, and workshops.