One of the highlights of my fieldwork among maca producers in Junín, Perú, was witnessing the maca harvest and post-harvest practices. The photos below illustrate much of the process, including picking, cleaning, and sun-drying the maca roots.
After the roots have been thoroughly dried they are ready to be sold to processors who turn the roots into powders, supplements, and other products for national and international markets. Very few growers process the roots into value-added products themselves. There is one processing plant in Junín, but the majority of maca processing and exporting takes place in larger cities such as Huancayo and Lima.