It was founded by the del Río Arteaga family in October, 2016 as part of their strategy to diversify their investments. They decided to invest in food production, particularly of nuts (walnuts and pistachios) and fresh fruit for exportation (cherries) as forms of diversification. To pursue this objective they searched for zones in Chile that present competitive advantages for fruit and nut production, principally for the quality of the produce, as well as the counter-season production respective to fruit producing countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
At the end of 2016 the first property, named “Fundo Casas de Puange” (165 hectares) was purchased, and two fields during 2017, called “Fundo Puertas Coloradas” (64 hectares) and “Fundo La Vega” (89 hectares). During 2019, 42 hectares were added to “Fundo Puertas Coloradas”. At the start of 2020 “Fundo Ramadilla” (128 hectares), located in the municipality of Alto del Carmen (region of Atacama) was added, such that Agrícola Huillinco currently possesses 488 hectares in total.
2016
165 ha Casas de Puangue
2017
64 ha Puertas Coloradas
89 ha La Vega
2019
+42(106) ha Puertas Coloradas
2020
128 ha Ramadilla
488 total areas
To date the business as the following plantations executed and in development:
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Nogales
Walnuts: 250 hectares (90% Chandler y 10% Cisco varieties).
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Pistachios
Pistachios: 30 hectares (83% Sirora y 17% Red Alepo varieties).
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Cherries
Cherries: 37 hectares (100% Santina variety) in development.
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Oranges
Oranges: 25 hectares (100% Caracara variety) in development.
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Clementines
Clementines: 75 hectares (Oronules 25%, Orogrande 50%, Clemenules 25%) in development.
In April, 2020 we had our first commercial walnut harvest, with a total production of 180 metric tons of dry walnuts with shells, and we plan to reach 1,800 metric tons in 2025.
Regarding the pistachios, we will have our first commercial harvest in 2022, in which we plan to harvest 5.6 metric tons, reaching 150 metric tons in 2028.
The cherries will be planted during 2020, we plan for a total production of 30 metric tons in 2023, to reach a total production of 504 metric tons in 2026.
Both the oranges and clementines will be planted in September, 2022 to enter production in 2024. In the first year of clementine harvest we plan to have a volume of 225 metric tons, reaching 3375 metric tons in 2028. For the Caracara oranges, we plan to have a volume of 75 metric tons, reaching 1250 metric tons in 2028.
FARMS
SPECIES
AREAS
Produce healthy food for thousands of people in diverse parts of the world, enabling a healthy
and happy life, always hand-in-hand with the well-being of all our collaborators and the
community, and with respect for the environment. Generate products with a low water and
carbon footprint from the start, through continuous improvements and use of technology.
We achieved GLOBAL GAP certification during the April, 2020 harvest.
The technical department of Agrícola Huillinco, as part of the strategy of continual improvement, has taken on the challenge of maintaining in all properties and items, research, development and innovation; in this way the following topics will remain up-to-date:
We are planting a pistachio varietal orchard. Due to the scarce information in Chile about the productive response of distinct varieties of pistachios, we decided to establish a varietal orchard with six varieties (Kerman, Largacha, Red Aleppo, Sirora, Aelgina, 1 local selection), in addition to testing the pollinators Peter, Criss and Chico and the rootstock UCB 1 (clonal and seeded), PG1, Atlantica. We plan to define the phenology for each variety, for which we have a meteorological station, in addition to their productivity and quality of fruit, as well as which are the best pollinators in each case; additionally we plan to contribute valuable information in relation to the influence of the rootstock in the production of pistachios in Chile.
In hydric efficiency, all our irrigation systems have been designed considering the types of soil and the species as the starting point. We have worked with the hydraulic design of hydraulic engineer Hernán Cox, in which the goal is the lowest quantity of energy per hectare possible, including taking advantage of the height differential of irrigation stands, which permits us to irrigate 25 hectares by gravity. Along this line, all our farms have humidity sensors (FDR) which enable us to know the contents of soil humidity in real time through telemetry and the dynamic of our tree’s water demands, with which we can define with great precision the irrigation needs of our farms.
In our walnut plantations, we have 70 hectares planted using the clonal rootstock Vlach, which provides great homogeneity on the farm, which translates in high quality nuts.
All our fields have meteorological stations installed which allows us to currently have daily information about all the climatic parameters relevant to fruit and nut production.