Tropical Argentina is a company dedicated to the import and distribution of tropical products, mainly bananas, pineapples and plantain, into the Argentinian market. It is, by far, the country's largest banana distributor; a business they've been in for three generations and of which they control a major portion of the market. Besides distributing the fruit they also import and move fruits from other companies, such as Dole, Sabrostar, and more recently Chiquita.
The company makes two types of sales: fruit that they store in their distribution centres for further ripening, and fruit distributed to urban centres in the country, where it's the buyers who are responsible for the maturation process. Its Main Distribution Centre and Plant Maturity is the only one in the Central Market of Buenos Aires certified by SENASA as a Green Refrigerator, " a recognition of product's excellent quality and safety," says Franco Sibilia of Tropical Argentina.
Their main customers include large wholesalers and supermarket chains. "We have our own distribution centre in the Central Market of Buenos Aires, 5,000 m that we are remodelling to make it twice the size, along with the other places, both owned and leased, where we have the combined capacity to mature 150,000 boxes bananas, of which we sell more than 100,000 a week," said Franco.
Over 60% of the bananas that are distributed nationally are from Argentina and Ecuador, Over20% comes from Bolivia and the rest is from Paraguay, Brazil and the domestice production. About 20 million boxes of bananas were imported from Argentina in 2012.
In addition to their main products, Tropical Argentina also distributes strawberries, mangos, passion fruit, avocados and blueberries from Tucuman and from the Buenos Aires region, depending on the time of the year. When it is not the product's harvest season they import them: kiwis from Italy and Chile, avocados from Chile, watermelons from Brazil and, in the future, other tropical fruits, such as passion fruit from Ecuador. Despite having a broad selection of products, the company mainly markets bananas, pineapples and plantain.
In 2012 the company, based on its entrepreneurial spirit and its pursuit of strategic alternatives, dabbled in the export market, where it currently has its biggest projections. "We've exported 100,000 boxes of pears this year, exclusively for Brazil, which were sent with great success, and 2,600 trial cases, which were very well received, were later sent to Europe via another company. Thus, we are working towards taking our first steps in Europe " concluded Sibilia Franco.
For more information:
Tropical Argentina
Franco Sibilia
CEO - Director
Skype: francosibilia
+541144624900
franco@tropicalargentina.com
www.tropicalargentina.com