""BELAY has been incredibly well-equipped to handle the challenge because they support an ecosystem of partners just like Masienda.""
— Jorge Gaviria, Founder
The Challenge
Jorge Gaviria founded Masienda in 2014 to build a new kind of masa value chain from scratch, one that could bring peak-quality, single-origin corn to the international chef community while creating direct economic, social, and environmental impact in rural farming communities across Mexico. Jorge trained at top restaurants, including Danny Meyer's Maialino and Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns, before setting out to build Masienda's supply chain from the ground up.
That mission meant coordinating a network of 2,000 smallholder farmers across Mexico practicing regenerative agriculture, alongside a wholesale business that spans direct-to-restaurant orders, larger overseas distribution, and consulting services.
"We manage a lot of moving parts throughout the value chain, to say the least," Jorge said.
Even as the company matured, its operations stayed complex by nature.
"We needed accounting professionals willing to patiently tackle the complexity of our company's operation, because as complex as our business may seem at times, it's still quite young."
The Solution
Masienda turned to BELAY for a team with real experience in the food entrepreneur space, one that could keep pace with a business built on an unusually intricate supply chain.
"BELAY has been incredibly well-equipped to handle the challenge because they support an ecosystem of partners just like Masienda," Jorge said.
""We manage a lot of moving parts throughout the value chain, to say the least. We needed accounting professionals willing to patiently tackle the complexity of our company's operation, because as complex as our business may seem at times, it's still quite young.""
— Jorge Gaviria, FounderThe Impact
With BELAY's accounting support in place, Jorge has been able to keep building out Masienda's value chain and product line, from heirloom corn to heirloom hibiscus, black beans, and specialty ingredients like Chicatana ants, while growing wholesale programs like its direct-order "D2Chef" restaurant relationships.
