Frutco AG: Investment in passion fruit cultivation and processing in Nicaragua achieves milestones

Having made the strategic decision to secure resources and due to the resulting backward integration, Chimaco SA, the Nicaraguan sister of the Swiss company Frutco AG, has succeeded in successfully cultivating 60 ha of organic passion fruit of the genetically protected „Chiamco Variety“ on its 200-ha farm „Gemasteppe“.

In addition, Chimaco SA agronomists manage the company’s own demo plantation, on which contract farmers are trained in the proper and sustainable cultivation and care of the plants in conventional passion fruit cultivation. They support the growers with technical know-how and agricultural expertise throughout the entire duration of the cooperation. Currently, 200 ha of sustainably cultivated fruit (60 ha of which are organic) are available for processing. In the medium term, this will be expanded to approx. 1,000 ha, with the Swiss group guaranteeing to purchase 100 % of the growers’ produce. The area under cultivation will always be a mix of the group’s own farmland and third-party, medium-sized growers. This, together with the company’s own processing of the fruit by Frutco de las Americas SA in Chinandega fully ensures the maintenance of a fully sustainable supply chain and guarantees stable prices over several years.

Frutco de las Americas SA’s new factory building — a 100 % subsidiary of our holding CT Finance AG — has been completed and is located in a duty-free zone directly in the centre of the cultivation area, near the Pacific port of Puerto Corinto. The work on the interior is in full swing. The fully-automated Rossi&Catelli production plant by CFT in Parma will be shipped to Nicaragua in early 2019. Frutco de las Americas SA is set to start production in Q2 2019.