After the end of the productive season, Nueces de Catamarca took stock of the campaign, analyzing the objectives, performance and opportunities for improvement. The inclement weather made 2019 a year with results below what was expected, but a product of excellent quality was obtained, thanks to investments and innovations in the harvest and packaging line, and new roads were traced in the global market.
Purity & Freshness of Origin
Nueces de Catamarca is a company dedicated to the production, processing and marketing of nuts in shell. Located on the heights of the Valleys of Catamarca, at 1150msnm, the establishment has 215 hectares of Walnut variety Chandler, of which 140Ha is currently. They are productive and the other 75Ha. They house young plants that will provide future fruit. Its strategic geographical location allows to anticipate the harvest (mid-March) and, therefore, to advance the arrival to international markets.
Innovation and productive efficiency
Always looking to meet the stated objectives, in 2019 it was possible to produce 300Tn of fruit, despite the adverse climatic conditions that violated the agricultural production of northern Argentina, thus maintaining the productive level reached the previous year.
Although the season was affected by continuous rains in the flowering season, causing a reduction in walnut productivity, the company has shown sustained growth in recent years, standing out for its intensive innovation process. Thanks to the investments made in the optimization of the production process and the management system, this year an important improvement in the quality of the nuts was achieved, obtaining high yield fruit in pulp, and optimal size and color, which favored the Arrival to more and new markets.
This favorable result was a product of the efficiency obtained with the mechanization of the harvest and the incorporation of new technologies in the post harvest line. With the implementation of the machinery necessary to operate in the three harvesting instances (vibration, sweeping and harvesting), added to the annexation of an electronic selection system, and the commissioning of new drying bins, the speed was increased processing, speeding up the harvest time – reducing it from 60 to 25 days – as well as cleaning and drying, consequently gaining greater commercial competitiveness, being able to reach the market with greater anticipation, and with a better price thanks to the high standards of quality achieved.
“The faster the nut is harvested and dried, the better fruit quality we get. The investments have provided us with high quality standards”
Eng. César Tello
Did you know?
It is projected that by 2022, Nueces de Catamarca will have 100% of its plants in a productive state, reaching an estimated production of 1300Tn of nuts in shell.
Our roots in NOA, our market in the world.
In search of an expansion in the export, and taking advantage of the good quality of product, in 2019 an excellent commercial management was carried out, which allowed to reach and open new markets worldwide, reaching more destinations within Turkey, and arriving for the first time to Lebanon, Dubai and Italy.
This commercial opening also served to present the Nueces de Catamarca brand to the world, through its new 25kg packaging, and position the company as a supplier of premium nuts.
“Our nuts had a great acceptance from our customers. With the idea of continuing to develop new markets, we plan to participate in a series of international fairs in Madrid, Paris and Dubai,”
Francisco Rotella
Commercial Manager of Fresh Fruit
The growth of Nueces de Catamarca implies the need to expand and adapt the infrastructure of the productive establishment, so a new shed will be added in order to expand the availability of space for the disposal and storage of machinery, tools and agrochemical products, thus providing greater flexibility to the daily operations of the company.
Finally, work is being carried out on the implementation of a fruit traceability system; software that will allow monitoring of it at every stage of the process, from the moment it enters until it leaves the packaging, and thus be able to guarantee customers the food safety and quality of the product.
New goals, new challenges
By 2020, it will seek to achieve the objective of producing between 500Tn and 600Tn of nuts in shell. For this, investments in the field will continue, incorporating one more sweeper, in order to facilitate and speed up the harvesting system even more, and implementing a new spraying system with turbines at height (Jacto Valencia), to achieve greater coverage and Disease control in plants. On the other hand, technology will also be acquired to automate the filling, weighing and sewing processes in the bagging line.