Major prize for “New Projects” in Agriculture in Portugal
High quality sweet potato plant material to farmers across Europe
The innovative start-up company created at the end of 2016 by Portuguese and Irish shareholders, is focused on delivering virus free, generation 1, high quality sweet potato plant material to farmers across Europe.
The growth of sweet potato market in Europe has been outstanding in the last years, at an annual rate of more than 12%*, with total consumption reaching more than 300 thousand tons* in 2017. This growth is expected to continue in the following years, as consumption per capita in Europe is still must lower than in the United States.
Much of that growth is due to the increasing conscientiousness of the European consumers of the nutritive and health benefits of sweet potato, now considered by many as a “superfood” and also because of the development of different sweet potato varieties, of different colors and tastes and its different applications (in terms of cooking and for industrial purposes).
One of the reasons why Europe consumption has been satisfied mainly by imports has been the fact that growers in Europe don´t have a good and diverse sweet potato plant material supply in order to achieve a better crop.
From left to right: Mr. Luís Capoulas Santos (Portuguese Minister of Agriculture), Mr. Tiago Santos (Nativa Land, Lda.'s General Manager), Mr. Nuno Carrapatoso (Nativa Land Lda.'s Director), Prof. António Vicente (Biological Engineering Department Director of University of Minho and Member of the jury)
NativaLand, is a company created at the end of 2016 to satisfy those European growers needs, focused on delivering virus free, generation 1, high quality sweet potato plant material to farmers across Europe, and it is owned 50/50 by Orientempo SA and Beotanics Ltd.
Orientempo is a Portuguese entrepreneurial Group with investments in agriculture, tourism, media and real estate. Beotanics Ltd is an Irish company founded by Patrick FitzGerald, for many years involved and innovating in the genetic selection, breeding and propagation of plants, including sweet potatoes.
NativaLand built a major European Sweet Potato Center in Portugal, in one of its most known agriculture regions, Ribatejo, more precisely in Muge, 65 Km North East of Lisbon, from where it is already developing, testing, producing and shipping sweet potatoes plants to farmers across Europe.
The NativaLand project will contribute significantly for the growth of sweet potato production in Europe and for the increasing satisfaction of the European consumers that always favors local products and a more diversified offer.
The “Prémio Nacional de Agricultura” (National Agriculture Prize) for “New Projects” in 2017 was attributed to NativaLand on the 1st of March in a ceremony held in Lisbon with the presence of the main Portuguese agriculture players and of the Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Luis Capoulas Santo.
For more information:
E: geral@nativaland.com
T: (+351) 211 383 200
www.nativaland.com