Let me give you some advice for visiting Colombia. Honestly, most of it applies almost anywhere, so I hope you find it useful wherever you travel.

One of the things I love about Colombia is that it is a genuinely polite society. People here aren’t just nice, they’re polite — and usually, even when they’re not feeling nice, they’re still polite. But there are a couple of credit card traps worth knowing about before you go. They aren’t common, and I don’t want to be alarmist, but they do happen, especially in tourist-trap areas where the person ringing you up figures they will never have to face you again. Think the tourist zones of Cartagena, the Zona T in Bogotá, or Parque Lleras in Medellín — places with plenty of drinking and carousing.

First, some good news. Colombia is actually ahead of the US on everyday card acceptance: even small shops and restaurants take cards and have tap-to-pay readers. And unlike in the US, where a server often disappears into the back with your card, here they bring the reader to your table, or you step up to the counter where the machine is. You rarely lose sight of your card, which is more secure. But here are the two scams.

Scam No. 1: the wrong amount entered on the reader. This one is on the merchant. They punch in some random, inflated amount — not your actual bill — and count on you tapping your card without glancing at the screen. Making it worse, many machines in Colombia don’t print a paper voucher. In my experience the Home Center hardware chain and the Jumbo grocery chain are both notorious for that. I’m not accusing them of anything shady — I shop at both — but I like a printed voucher so I can confirm everything matches what we agreed.

“Before you tap, make sure the amount on the reader is correct. Politely ask to verify it. That’s all.” — Loren Moss, Finance Colombia

If you’re charged the wrong amount, your only recourse is to go back and chase it down once you notice, which might be the next day. By then the same staff may not be working, or the place may still be closed from the night before. This matters even more with a debit card than a credit card: with debit you don’t have the same protections, and once the money leaves your account it can be very hard, or impossible, to get back.

The fix is simple. Before you tap, make sure the amount on the reader is correct. If they try to take the card from your hand, politely ask them to show you the amount they entered first. That’s all it takes.

Scam No. 2: dynamic currency conversion. This one really gets under my skin, and it’s run by the card networks and ATM operators, not the shop. At the register or the cash machine, they “kindly” offer you a choice — pay or withdraw in Colombian pesos, or in your home currency, such as US dollars or euros. Choose your home currency and they hit you with a lousy exchange rate plus a commission, usually around 7%. It’s right there on the screen. You’re paying roughly 7% for absolutely nothing. The industry calls this dynamic currency conversion, and you should always decline it.

The numbers add up fast. Pull $2 million COP out of an ATM — roughly $550 USD right now — and selecting dollars can cost you up to $60 USD extra. That’s $60 USD handed over for free. Always choose to be charged in pesos, the local currency.

Here’s the nuance: that money goes to the banks, not to the cashier or the ATM attendant, so don’t take it out on the person in front of you. Many readers don’t even offer the trick and simply charge in pesos — the gas station in my neighborhood is like that, and I love it. But when the option does come up, the reader literally flashes a message telling the clerk to “hand the machine to the customer.” A lot of them ignore it because they’re rushing, cycle through, and hit “dollars” without asking. So always check your voucher and confirm they didn’t.

This has happened to me at least three times. Once, at a Papa John’s (NASDAQ: PZZA), the cashier was hammering the buttons. “Cóbrame en pesos,” I told him, firmly, because he didn’t look like he was paying attention. He ignored me and charged the dollar rate anyway. I insisted he reverse it. He didn’t know how and didn’t have the authorization, so he had to call his manager for the codes. It took 20 minutes while the carry-out line backed up — but that was his mistake, not mine.

Another time, at a mini-Carulla in Bogotá — Carulla is a nice grocery chain — the cashier never even asked and charged me in dollars. Same drill: I made him reverse it. He had to wake his manager up by phone, because he had neither the authority nor the know-how. That one took 40 minutes. He tried to send me back the next day; absolutely not — your mistake, you fix it now. He swore the machine never asked about pesos or dollars, so after he voided the charge, we ran it again slowly, step by step. Sure enough, right there on the screen: “dollars or pesos?” He’d simply ignored it. He learned something that day, the hard way. Stand up for your rights.

A related tip: if you travel internationally, don’t use a card that charges foreign transaction fees. There’s no good excuse for it. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), for instance, charges them on its debit cards unless you carry a very high balance, so I don’t use them abroad. For debit, I like the Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) checking account card, but there are others — your credit union may offer a good deal, and credit unions exist worldwide (in Colombia they’re called cooperativas). For credit, I use the JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) Sapphire Reserve: strong travel benefits and, crucial for me, no foreign transaction fee. If you don’t need the premium perks, the Sapphire Preferred is a solid travel card too. Nobody pays me to say this, and they are not a sponsor — these are just cards I use personally. If you use my referral link, I might earn a few airline miles as a thank-you.

Has anything like this happened to you? What’s the worst rip-off you’ve run into while traveling? I once wrote about a literal tourist trap in Medellín — a bar in Parque Lleras that was kidnapping and extorting foreign tourists, slapping absurd tabs like $500 USD on a few drinks and refusing to let people leave until they paid. They finally got busted. Tell me your stories in the comments, on YouTube or on our channels on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

One last thing. Beyond the usual “like and subscribe” — which does tell the platform you want more of this — I’d ask you not to trust the algorithm. Some ornery politician, whether it’s Uribe or Petro here in Colombia, or Donald Trump or Xi Jinping, could get annoyed and pull strings to get a creator de-platformed. You’ve surely seen it happen, where a YouTuber or podcaster simply vanishes. So please also subscribe to our newsletter; the link is below. I’ll never share your email — we’ve been in business for over a decade, and we never have and never will. For Finance Colombia, just go to FCSubscribe.com.

I’m Loren Moss, publisher of Finance Colombia. Thank you, and be kind, be safe, and stay smart.

Caution: As of 13 January 2020, Finance Colombia has been unable to verify any information regarding Flora Growth Corp.

Kasa markets fruit juices and pulps from organic exotic fruits such as mango, acai, passion fruit (maracuyá), camu camu, copoazú and guava, as well as more commonly used fruits such as bananas, strawberries, oranges and apples.  Kasa also produces chocolate confectionery using 70% Colombian cacao.

Mamba-branded products are widely distributed in Colombia, sold in retailers such as Carulla, Tostao’ Café & Pan, Deli Reposteria, Jumbo, and is available for home delivery via UberEats.

Over the last year, Kasa has been researching and developing CBD (cannabidiol)-infused juices and chocolate, and already has a line of CBD-infused juices (10 mg CBD/250 ml of juice) and chocolate bars (40 mg CBD/100 mg of chocolate).  Kasa hopes to sell such CBD-infused products in the Latin American market immediately upon receiving regulatory approval, which is expected later this year.

Kasa has been researching and developing Cannabidiol-infused juices and chocolate.

Launched by filmmaker Santiago Mora in 2013, Kasa has received several innovation & social impact awards and grants from the Colombian government for its work with local farmers and indigenous Amazonian communities such as the Tarapacá in the Putumayo region to cultivate fruits for the Mamba beverages, providing sustainable economic opportunities to these communities and offering an alternative to Amazon deforestation and illegal mining in these areas.

“We are excited to acquire an entrepreneurial, innovative company like Kasa Wholefoods.  They have done an excellent job of developing a line of world-class juices and chocolates.  There is immense demand for CBD-infused products in Latin America and worldwide, said Damian Lopez, Flora’s CEO. “We will combine our organic CBD-Oil with Kasa’s organic Amazonian based fruit juices and chocolates to satisfy this demand. We expect to obtain regulatory approval in Colombia to infuse food & beverages with CBD in 2020 and be the market leader in this category.”

In order to consummate the transaction, Flora must pay Kasa shareholders $294,000 in cash, and pay Kasa’s outstanding debt balance of USD$91,000.  Existing Kasa shareholders will retain a 10% equity interest in Kasa which may not be diluted until Flora invests $5 million USD in Kasa.  Once this financing milestone is met, all shareholders of Kasa will be diluted if they do not participate in any further Kasa financing. The transaction is subject to the parties finalizing negotiations and entering into a definitive agreement and obtaining of the necessary regulatory approvals.

The CEO of Colombia’s largest supermarket and retail chain was given the award for “his outstanding performance leading the group’s extensive portfolio of brands in several countries,” according to the Council of the Americas.

Council of the Americas has honored Grupo Exito CEO Carlos Mario Giraldo for “outstanding performance leading the group’s extensive portfolio of brands in several countries,” said the Washington-based business promotion organization. (Photo credit: Grupo Exito)

In addition to the Éxito grocery stores seen all across Colombia, the Envigado-based conglomerate’s brands and stores include Carulla, SurtiMax, and Viva. It also has retail operations across South America, including various locations in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.

The honor is one of six handed out this year by the body within its annual Bravo Business Awards, which were announced today an will be formally presented in a ceremony in Miami on November 2.

Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, vice president and minister of foreign affairs of Panama, has won the most prestigious award this year, the Innovative Leader of the Year Award.

“Vice President de Saint Malo de Alvarado has greatly contributed to the renewal of the public sector in her country and is a point of reference in the search for gender equality and female empowerment throughout Latin America,” said Susan Segal, president and CEO of Council of the Americas.

Four other awards will also be presented in November. Fabio Schvartsman, CEO of the Rio de Janiero-based metals and mining company Vale, has been named CEO of the Year for his work “leading one of the most successful multinational companies in the world,” said the organization in a statement.

Grupo Lala Chairman Eduardo Tricio Haro won the award for Transformational Leader of the Year, Greenberg Traurig Vice President Patricia Menéndez-Cambó took home the Visionary Leader of the Year Award, and Banco de Crédito e Inversiones CEO Eugenio Von Chrismar has been honored as Financier of the Year.

This move marks another expansion of service for Banco de Bogotá, which claims 7,340 transaction points in Colombia, including its presence in Grupo Éxito stores — including Éxito, Carulla, SurtiMax, and Super Inter — and Colsubsidio supermarkets and pharmacies.

“Our new alliance with La 14 allows us to position ourselves as the first bank with correspondent banking locations in this prestigious chain of supermarkets and stores,” said Yohana Mojica Ramón, a manager at Banco de Bogotá.

La 14 has its largest presence in the south of the country and maintains locations in 12 Colombian cities: Cali, Bogotá, Buenaventura, Manizales, Pereira, Tuluá, Palmira, Jamundí, Yumbo, Neiva, Armenia, and Girardot.

Photo: Banco de Bogotá’s headquarters in Colombia’s capital. (Credit: Jared Wade)

The transaction will enable Grupo Éxito to consolidate as the operational platform of Casino Group in South America (Colombia, Brasil, Argentina and Uruguay) and will position Éxito as the leading South American retail group, and the largest Colombian retailers based on sales. Grupo Éxito, which also operates in Colombia under the upscale Carulla and discount Surtimax brands, will reach a population of over 280 million people in the largest economies of the continent.

Carlos Mario Giraldo Moreno, Grupo Éxito CEO

“As we set out in our strategic definition, we are now making real the idea of having a “multi-Latino” Grupo Éxito together with the management of Grupo Pao de Açúcar. We love the challenge of becoming the largest retail company in South America and will work to achieve the proposed results and continue our expansion. The customer will remain at the center of the Organization in each country in which we operate,” said Carlos Mario Giraldo Moreno, Grupo Éxito CEO.

There will be no change in the management structure of GPA as a result of this transaction. Rothschild & Cie was the common financial advisor for Grupo Éxito and the Casino Group. Bank of America Merrill Lynch provided a fairness opinion to the Board of Directors of Éxito that, “as of the date thereof, and subject to the analyses, assumptions, limitations and qualifications thereof, the Aggregate Consideration to be paid by Éxito in the transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to Éxito.”

• Total Deal Value: USD$1,826 million.
• After consolidating revenues from Brasil and Argentina, Grupo Éxito will book sales of over USD $33 billion/ COP $67.2 Billion (2014) and a leadership position in four countries: Brasil, Colombia, Argentina, and Uruguay, representing 75% of the population of the region.
• Grupo Pão de Açúcar has 2,143 stores in Brasil. It is the #1 food, #2 e-commerce vendor in the 5th largest country in the world, and #1 in South America. Its sales reached USD $27.8 billion / COP $55 Billion in 2014.
• Libertad has 27 stores in Argentina and is a leading food retailer in the region of Córdoba, with sales of USD $495 million / COP $0.99 Billion in 2014.
• Éxito purchases the shares from its own parent company, France based Casino.
• The move is seen as defensive by Casino, as Brasil’s economy slows.
• Casino owns 54.8% of Éxito

Éxito’s controlling shareholder, Casino, Guichard-Perrachon, has indicated that it may acquire additional shares in its Latin American subsidiaries in the coming months, depending on market conditions. Casino Group, which owns 54.8% of Éxito, will remain its controlling shareholder and will keep fully consolidating its subsidiaries Éxito and GPA. Éxito will finance the transaction by using part of its existing available cash and new credit facilities provided by several Colombian and international banks.

The deal, which consists of a parent essentially selling one subsidiary to another, has raised eyebrows among analysts, as it “pushes some cash directly from the international businesses into France and it moves some of the debt out of France into Latin America, much closer to the source of the cash generation,” Bernstein analysts told Reuters. Brasil’s economy continues to struggle, and while the market potential remains huge over the long term, this deal does place Éxito as a risk buffer between GPA and Casino. If GPA sales fall off, it will most directly affect Éxito.

During the celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week recently, the two brothers Felipe and Juan Pablo Arbelaez, founders of Vive Agro, were selected by Endeavor Colombia as the 2014 Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Local panelists on the selection committee noticed great potential in the venture of brothers Juan Pablo and Felipe, who shared with the panel those challenges they have faced since launching the company in 2011, when Juan Pablo Felipe and identified the need to provide traditional and fast food restaurants with quality ingredients that arrive ready to use in their recipes.  Since that time, the Arbelaez brothers and their team have continuously offered their customers pre-washed and prepared produce, already disinfected, cut, packaged and ready for cooking or consumption. This innovation significantly reduces labor costs and preparation time, and increases productivity of employees, business efficiency, and allows restaurants and food service outlets to operate with less staff but no sacrifice in quality.

In just three years, Vive Agro became the leader in the Colombian market, and the company is beginning to expand internationally. Additionally, Vive Agro takes seriously its social commitment, by contributing to the strengthening of Colombian farmers.

Vive Agro is headed to the International Selection Panel that will be held in Chile in April of 2015, which will decide whether Felipe and Juan Pablo Arbelaez will be recognized as global entrepreneurs of the year.

Endeavor is a global network created 17 years ago that seeks to create sustainable economic development in the 20 countries where it operates. Endeavor provides services that include domestic and international high-level connections, access to events of entrepreneurship and investment forums, and developing strategic advice aimed at breaking down barriers to growth in business. Endeavor Colombia was founded in 2006 and currently has 47 selected entrepreneurs leading 25 companies which, according to the organization, generate 0.17% of GDP in Colombia and employ more than 8,400 workers.

Finance Colombia’s Loren Moss recently had a chance to speak with Vive Agro’s Juan Felipe Arbelaez to discuss Vive Agro’s key to success and future prospects.

Finance Colombia: Tell me about the concept of Vive Agro.

Juan Felipe: Vive Agro began four years ago. Alongside my brother, we began with an idea to connect the farming community, in other words, the agricultural industry and what is produced on farms in Colombia with the city. We decided that what had to be done was to add value to the vegetables that farmers were planting in the country to be able to pass them on to the final consumers in the cities via large fast-food chains, such as Subway, Burger King, and El Corral.

We realized there was an unattended industry where these value added vegetables, called “freshcut” in the United States, in Colombia, this sector hadn’t yet been developed. There were some initiatives, but they were very artesanal and they did not have the sufficient processing and food handling technology that our customers so we realized that there was an untapped market. We noticed that large multinational companies were coming to our country, companies like the ones I mentioned before: Subway, Burger King, Chili’s, most of these big American companies expressed major interest in entering Colombia. We looked for investors to establish a freshcut facility. This was the first facility in Colombia with the technology sufficient to meet the quality standards that the multinational companies require. So we found the investors, closed the investment deal, and today we have a first-class facility for pre-cut “freshcut” food, with HACCP certifications. These are the certifications for food processing best-practices that our clients demand from us.

That is how we basically got into this industry. My brother and I had a huge interest in developing the agricultural sector, which plays an important role in the development of our country. This sector had been neglected and the government hasn’t paid enough attention to it.

We as consumers are demanding more and more information about the product: What kind of water was used in irrigation? What fertilizers and pesticides were applied? All of this is advancing and evolving the added value produce industry. Nowadays customers are more conscious of what they are buying.

Finance Colombia: It seems very interesting to me. Because the Colombian market is modernizing and companies like the ones mentioned before: Subway, Burger King, they have their standards and their international norms. I saw interviews with some farm owners, where they said that they are now being held to high quality standards, not necessarily meaning that the food was bad before, but that they want uniformity in the products across international markets. Whereas french fries at a McDonalds in Colombia, will be the same as in a McDonalds in Canada, right? So it seems to me that they might ask you guys for potatoes with a specific percentage of starch or something similar and that a company as sophisticated as yours can comply with the demands of those companies that are after markets in different countries, right?

Juan Felipe: That is exactly what we do. As you correctly said: How much starch should a potato have to be placed on one of those chains, or what are the characteristics of a leaf of lettuce so that it can be put into a hamburger? All of those needs and requirements are things we communicate and transmit to the farmers and we train them so that they can produce, complying with the requirements of the customers, and not the other way around which is what happened before in Colombia. Farmers would sell their products without any guidance, would try to sell their products to the distributors or the central wholesale markets, trying to sell their products at very low prices with no standards or traceability at all, the foodservice consumer not even knowing the origin of the product. That is what we were getting practically every day on the tables in our Colombian restaurants. So what we did was to connect the farmers and producers with the needs and requirements of the urban foodservice consumers that were constantly becoming more demanding as the standards increase and as the consumer becomes more aware of what he or she is eating. We as consumers are demanding more and more information about the product: What kind of water was used in irrigation? What fertilizers and pesticides were applied? All of this is advancing and evolving the added value produce industry. Nowadays customers are more conscious of what they are buying.

Finance Colombia: We have seen it with coffee. There is a demand for fair trade coffee and it involves companies treating producers in a fair manner, and they make these sustainable products. They have good labor deals with the farmers. I also imagine that there are companies that want to understand every link of the supply chain, as they say, from the soil up to the oven. They want to know the history and provenance of the food, right?

Juan Felipe: Exactly. You explained it perfectly. That is also what we do at Vive Agro. It doesn’t only take place with the coffee industry, but with us: it also takes place with lettuce, potatoes or carrots where people demand to know what is it that they are eating, how they are eating it and who planted those products—how were they farmed, even what payments they receive, how they were treated—We can safely say that there is a consumer today, pushed in part by social media, who is demanding more from the points of purchase where they buy their food.

Finance Colombia: And how did you catch the attention of Endeavor Colombia? How did they discover you and how was it that you won their accolades?

Juan Felipe: Well, with Endeavor there is a very interesting story. Some of our main partners have been Endeavor entrepreneurs for some years. Ever since we created Vive Agro we have had Endeavor in our minds but we knew that they were a very demanding network and organization and that we had to fulfill many requirements in order to participate in their contest. We first started with contests at a local level. Emprendepais—it belongs to La Fundacion Bolivar Davivienda—had these entrepreneur incubators. We participated in the contest called Emprendepais and didn’t win, but they connected us with Endeavor and they took us and began training and guiding us so that we could participate in their national contest.In that contest, Vive Agro successfully presented to a national panel, but that was only the first step. From there, we travel to Chile in April to compete with other businesses in a global contest.

Finance Colombia: So tell me about the future of Vive Agro? Now that you guys are well established and already have a well known client list, what are the future plans, what are the future innovations with regards to the international markets, exports, new products or new processes?

Juan Felipe: Well, right now we are receiving capital from a new partner,  a very large mutual fund that recently made a significant investment with us. We are beginning the construction of a larger facility with a lot more technology that will allow us to execute an expansionary plan in the entire country. Vive Agro’s objective is to become the national market leader. There is still a lot of available potential, the produce market in Colombia is calculated to be worth 900 million dollars.

 That means that there is still a lot of space to grow here in Colombia, but I will tell you what we have planned for exports. We know that here in Colombia we still have a lot of untapped markets. For example, Vive Agro has no presence in supermarkets, in the retail sector. Another example is the hotel industry, which is undergoing lots of local expansion.

Let’s say there are three vehicles for growth in the company: One is to penetrate deeper with the restaurants we already have as clients. Every day we have more multinational food chains entering Colombia. Two would be entering the hotel market. We of course have a very clear vision of what we want to do in the hotel’s market here in Colombia and three, serving the catering industry: Companies like Sodexo, like Compass Group.

Additionally we want to be in the retail market in supermarkets such as Exito, Carulla, Olimpica, these are the main competitors in the supermarket industry. Further ahead there are clients like Burger King and Taco Bell who are asking us to export to countries that don’t have a supply of value added produce, we are talking about countries like Panama or the Caribbean Islands and us by having a certified facility for Taco Bell for example, we could be providing them with product. So Vive Agro is not only focusing on the national market but it also has a vision to export.

And let’s say, it’s not only about vegetable products but also meat products or other agricultural products in Colombia. Since we already have the supply chain, we would only be adding products to those channels.

Finance Colombia: Between you and me, what frustrates me when I am in Colombia is looking for high quality cheeses. This is my personal opinion, but it is something I miss when I am in Colombia. Finding some good international cheeses, but maybe that’s only one consumer’s demand.

Juan Felipe: But it is true. Here we lack a culture of ripened cheese, we consume fresh cheese but the demand for ripened cheese is very small. Even thought there are some stores that sell these products, the average Colombian consumer is still very basic in his or her knowledge about cheese.

Loren: I am optimistic because I remember ten years ago on my first trip to Colombia there was no wine variety. Gato Negro, Concha y Toro, Casillero del Diablo, and that was it! But this June I visited Expovino and wow! I went there with the Sommelier of El Cielo Restaurant and I can see how everything has changed.

So, what is the investment environment for a company like yours? How do Banks treat you? In a more traditional industry like food distribution is it hard to catch the attention of investors or venture capitalists?

Juan Felipe: Well, it hasn’t been easy to find investors. I think they come to us because we belong to a network like Endeavor which connects you with the funders or the people who can be potential investors for your company. I think that Colombia is still very behind in accessibility for entrepreneurs to investment, especially start-up phase businesses. We at Vive Agro had some startup capital but I know that for some startups it is very hard to find those initial funds. When you have a good idea, Colombian investors tend to wait until you prove your idea can be profitable before they support the idea and invest. If you compare that to the US, we are still very far behind when it comes to having angel investors who support and invest in ideas when these ideas are still only on paper.

I do believe that the right environment is being created so that our country moves forward. I understand that the Colombian economy is driven mainly by small and medium sized companies, and these companies need more help and financial support, and above all, they need managerial help to put them on a growth trajectory.

However, I see that in the last four years this has improved a lot. There is a new dynamic. For example, Fundación Bolivar has been betting on projects like Emprendepais to help the companies that make sense to get started. This builds a network of potential investors and banks that will make the sector grow. So even though I see that we are still very far behind, I also see that Colombia is on a good path. The government has some good initiatives. Innpulsa is an initiative by the government that is worth mentioning. With this initiative, they offer grants to entrepreneurs who start a business. So I do believe that the right environment is being created so that our country moves forward. I understand that the Colombian economy is driven mainly by small and medium sized companies, and these companies need more help and financial support, and above all, they need managerial help to put them on a growth trajectory.

Finance Colombia:  True, and the government has some agricultural programs to promote development, or what your company is doing with the agricultural sector?

Juan Felipe: Yes, yes. There are a couple of things, For example, we now have the financing of Finagro, which is a state owned entity that helps farmers, especially with crop finance. However, there still is the need for a stronger presence from the government in our financial institutions as well as in the agricultural sector. It is not easy for the banks and the government to open up completely to the agricultural sector, so although there are good initiatives, there are also many restrictions as to the capability of a farmer to find financial support and loans. As I said, I think we are on the right track, but we are still far behind. Colombia has a true agricultural potential. Here we have the right weather conditions, we have the water, we have the mountains, we have the valleys, and then we ask ourselves: How is it that Peru and Ecuador are ahead of us? What have they done differently than us? Aside from the fact that they don’t have a military conflict like we do; they have surpassed us in agricultural technology and in the importance that their governments have given to their agricultural sectors.