Terravocado, a company that started as a university project of three mechatronic engineering students from the School of Engineers of Antioquia, has already dedicated a decade to the industrialization of avocado.
“When we were studying, we started building an automated machine to extract avocado oil. Around 2008 and 2009 we completed the construction of the pilot plant, which allowed us, technically, to produce avocado oil," stated Daniel Gomez, general manager of the company. Later on, they realized the best business was frozen pulp.
They started their business by allocating their product to the domestic market until 2015 when they made their first shipment to the US. “It's our main export market. We have also made shipments to Australia and a little to the Caribbean islands, in particular to the island of Guadeloupe because of the cruises that arrive there constantly and the unavailability of fresh avocado,” Gomez stated.
Currently, the avocado pulp is the company's flagship product and is purchased by two types of customers: distributors of the Horeca channel and companies that manufacture guacamole.
The business has been growing among the companies that are dedicated to the industrialization of avocado in Colombia. The most relevant ones are exporting on average 1,000 tons of processed products per month. “In our case, we export the product under our customer's brand. Each customer has their own presentations, but we export presentations from a pound to 5 kilos in a vacuum sealed bag.”
Source: redagricola.com