"We market about 60 tonnes of fresh aromatic herbs per month"

La Corsaria, a marketer of aromatic herbs from Colombia, currently sells about 70 tonnes of these products per month. Its main product is "spicata" mint, but they also produce rosemary, chives, thyme or bay leaf, and work with associated producers who cultivate basil, tarragon and oregano.

 

Since it deals with fresh products, transportation is done by air, given the special cooling conditions required to maintain the cold chain, which is very important with this type of products. The shelf life then oscillates between 10 and 15 days in optimal quality conditions. For this reason, Hernández believes that "La Corsaria has a great advantage, since our crops are located in a town near the airport, which gives us easy and quick access to air transport."

Currently, this family business, which gives employment to around 120 people (mostly family mothers from the region), has ​​26 hectares planted. Its acreage is mostly devoted to conventional production, with a small share in the process of being certified organic.

"La Corsaria has a continuous improvement plan that has led it to invest to upgrade its facilities. It has invested, for example, in improvements for the cold room, as well as in the purchase of machinery to technify the post-harvest process, thereby improving the yields and product quality," explains Hernández. "Furthemore, we have been making investments in the implementation of an ecological irrigation and water treatment system with the idea of improving the quantity and quality of the production in an environmentally-friendly manner."

Hernández stated that "La Corsaria is a family business with 20 years' experience in the production and export of fresh aromatic herbs. We have production year round and can supply the world with premium quality fresh herbs that meet the highest food quality and safety standards. We are certified under the ISO 9001, Global Gap and Primus GFS regulations."

"Our priorities are the protection and preservation of the environment, maintaining a high social commitment and offering the best quality and service to our customers. Naturally, we have a social commitment to our region and we help it prosper by generating employment for family mothers and fathers."

For now, La Corsaria is not interested in the production of edible flowers. Francina Hernández says that "for now, it is more important and necessary to continue increasing our organic production, since that is the biggest trend of recent years. Edible flowers are a market that still needs to be explored, and although we believe it could be interesting, we do not consider it an option for the immediate future."