Successful models of organic production and marketing
In apples and blueberries, the consultant Miguel Elissalt and the Bawlitza family respectively, have managed to obtain industrial-scale productions and develop attractive marketing models, even though each one has a different vision of this type of agriculture.
The production and consumption of organic foods shows an upward trend at the international level, along with the growing concern to consume healthier and chemical-free foods.
In the United States, one of the main consumers of these products, it is estimated that they will continue to expand at double-digit rates in the coming years in terms of sales, which already represent around 4% of the total in that country's food, according to a USDA report.
They also gain ground in Europe. A Technavio report projects that, in terms of profits, organics will have a growth of 7% between 2016 and 2020, where the fruit and vegetable area will have a quarter of the market share.
And Chile is not far behind. The changes are also noticed in the field. The agricultural area certified as organized in the country grew 10% only between 2014 and 2015, when it went from 17.871 hectares to almost 20 thousand, according to the Odepa data. And, if the land destined for wild collection is considered, the national total exceeded one hundred thousand hectares for the first time.
Faced with these projections of global growth, there are many farmers who look at organic management as an alternative to give more profitability to their projects, although others also do so thinking of developing a more sustainable work with the environment.
However, it is not an easy task, since the change from the conventional to the organic system requires time - at least three to five years, those who have achieved it admit -, deeper agronomic knowledge and specialized advice. Something that these companies, which represent two models and two different commercial orientations, have successfully raffled off: specialized fairs and export.
THE PERSONAL PROJECT OF ADVISOR MIGUEL ELISSALT
When talking about organic agriculture, Miguel Elissalt is something like a rockstar. A reference for other producers.
He started working as an advisor in the organic management of fruit trees at 1998, with the Greenvic group and the Emiliana vineyard, where he remained as agricultural manager until a couple of years ago and today continues as an external consultant. Together with his wife he founded the Ecoferia de La Reina, one of the first commercialization points of organic products with this concept in Santiago, which he leads until today, and has the only apple tree nursery certified in the country, in its field near the river Achibueno, in the Maule Region.
There also works an orchard with 30 hectares of apple trees in full production, which will add another 25 hectares, and develops a project of conservation of native forest in the mountain range of more than two thousand hectares, which defines as a reward for nature , to which he says he has always wanted. In fact, he financed his university studies as a mountain guide.
It is a cool morning in mid-December and its apple trees are covered with green grasses and colorful grasses, with weeds, but the trees are full of fruit. The model with which he works is closer to agroecology than to the substitution of agrochemicals for natural alternatives that characterizes organic production, so he seeks to coexist plants, animals and insects, and elaborates most of their inputs.
"Some people are desperate looking for organic herbicides, and that is not understanding the logic. I do not want to kill the plants. I want to get them to interact with the ecosystem in a way that does not hurt me, but achieving that requires a lot of study and observation"He says, adding that for this it is necessary that farmers are drenched in what happens in the field and plan in the medium term, which allows them to save costs.
"In a conventional system, what you want most is for everything to work with telemetry, by pressing a button at a distance, but this is not the case here", He emphasizes.
Although the projects he advises work according to what farmers are looking for, he says that in his garden it is not a priority to achieve high levels of yield - although he assures that in some he obtains some 90 tons per hectare (in a traditional system the average production for obtain high quality is 80 tons) - and that, instead of using the mesh systems against sunburn, for example, has prioritized to protect them with the orientation that gives them to plant them.
"I prefer to take my garden a bit more relaxed, because the business is in quality, rather than in performance. Organic fruit today has the same appearance requirements as conventional fruit, and that is a challenge all the time"Says Miguel Elissat, adding that he has the option of selling the second quality fruit in the Ecoferia, where he also uses the production of kiwis and pears that he keeps in small areas of the countryside.
Among the pending challenges, he believes that it is necessary for organic farmers to incorporate more technology to face current problems, and that the authorities give more protection against the bad practices of neighbors, which can contaminate some trees with agrochemicals.
"We need organic agriculture, in general, to be more industrialized, to respond to the demands of costs and quality that exist today. We continue to apply with tools from the 70 years, and we have to learn to incorporate state-of-the-art technology, as Chile's most successful organic projects are doing today."He says.
ENTRE RÍOS FARMS: EXPORT BLUEBERRIES WITH A HOLISTIC HANDLING
Although they went through some years of conventional management, due to the lack of knowledge about blueberries in Chile at the end of the 80 years, Jorge Bawlitza de la Fuente has always been an organic farmer. He says he grew up with that training. And he tells us that to measure the results, the almost 120 hectares of blueberries he has in the company and family exporter Entre Rios Farms - which he leads with his son Jorge - counts the number of birds per hectare.
"You go to a field that is not organic and you do not see a bird, because they do not have anything to eat and they leave. We do not have bee problems, for example. Because of this, it is more than a productive system. Being organic becomes a way of life and you have to look for a formula to be sustainable in every way", He explains, in reference to the fact that they have not neglected the economic sustainability of the business.
The change from conventional to organic management took them five years, until they became certified, and said that it was the good prices of the Berry those who allowed them to do so, because at the beginning the production losses were strong.
"At that time there were no price differences between having organic or conventional blueberries. The exporters did not know who to sell them to, and that is where we started to do it directly, because we understood that the marketing lines were different, with other customers.", Says Jorge Bawlitza Muñoz (son).
As for those who want to be organic just to take advantage of the current good prices for these products, he stresses that they are going to make a mistake, because there must be a change of working logic behind them. "This is much more demanding of time, because we are not thinking about what will happen tomorrow, but in the spring of next year. It is necessary to have a degree of anticipation that in conventional agriculture does not exist", He says.
While it is not something that has retribution in the liquidations of the company, one of the peculiarities of Entre Ríos Farms is that they work their gardens with the principles of feng shui and tellurology, a discipline that seeks to identify the energies of the Earth in each moment and how they affect daily life, in this case the blueberry plantations.
"We seek the harmony of the kingdoms (animal, plant and human), with the archetypal elements and animals of feng shui, and we put them in their present time to bring them into balance, because the elements are very easily disharmonized. It is not something that they pay for it, but it does not cost anything to do it and with this we can help certain people consume food that already comes with that universal consciousness. That which is delivered when you do something with love is important", Highlights Jorge Bawlitza.
To ensure that it has also given them practical results, such as improvements after the frosts and that some plants were left to die.
In this sense, he states that the company's projections are focused on the long term. "With organic management, the difference is that land, instead of getting worse, improves, and we can get yields up to 30% more than in conventional orchards. We aspire to that", Project.
Source: Field Magazine
Previous article
Warning for low prices of blueberriesARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS
