PepsiCo will invest US$1 billion in Colombia over the next five years, President Abelardo De la Espriella announced in late September. According to La República and Valora Analitik, the money will go to three areas: expanding production, modernising operations and strengthening the distribution network.
The president wrote on the social network X that the investment drives employment and supports more than 2,000 farmers. The reports do not say how much of the money will go to potato sourcing, storage or farmer programmes.
The largest industrial potato buyer
Potatoes are central to the company’s supply chain in Colombia. PepsiCo is the country’s largest industrial buyer of potatoes, with purchases of about 84,000 tonnes a year, both outlets report. La República says the potatoes go to snack brands such as Margarita and DeTodito. The company also buys 25,000 to 28,000 tonnes of plantain a year.
In April 2025 PepsiCo opened a post-harvest centre in Tenjo, Cundinamarca. According to Minuto60, the centre can store 20,000 tonnes of potatoes for up to six months and cost about 80 billion Colombian pesos. Minuto60 says it mainly serves growers in Cundinamarca and Boyacá, and that in 2025 the company worked with more than 4,160 small potato and plantain producers.
PepsiCo has more than 3,800 employees in Colombia, two production plants in Funza (Cundinamarca) and Guarne (Antioquia), and seven distribution centres that serve more than 400,000 points of sale, Valora Analitik reports. In the previous five years the company invested US$158 million in its Colombian plants.
The Ministry of Agriculture is working with PepsiCo on credit, irrigation, mechanisation and access to improved seed, according to Argenpapa, which cites Río Noticias. The ministry also identified a possible need for 17,000 to 23,000 tonnes of yellow maize for the company’s operations.
Why it matters
Colombia harvests more than 2 million tonnes of potatoes a year, according to Minuto60. An industrial buyer that takes 84,000 tonnes and runs its own storage gives some growers an alternative to selling on the open fresh market. If part of the new investment raises snack output, demand for processing-quality potatoes and for stored supply could grow.
Many details are still missing. The reports reviewed do not give new plant capacities, locations or a timetable, and they do not state whether potato purchases will rise. Growers in Cundinamarca and Boyacá, the main supply area for the Tenjo centre, will be the first to see any change in contract volumes.
Photo: A potato crop near Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia (illustrative). Petruss / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
