Israeli-owned agricultural investment company MANAGRO this past week announced the acquisition of Pacific Fruits, a leading Colombian produce exporter.
MANAGRO is a venture established in Colombia in 2014 by Israeli businessmen with the purpose to drive the development of agribusiness in Valle del Cauca and the country.
According to Chagai Stern, the organization’s Executive Director, the acquisition consisted of the company’s offices in Valle del Cauca, its operations, packing house strategic channel, and development of new business.
“Pacific Fruit International is in a strategic location, looking to Asia, with state of the art machinery, capacity to exports the volumes required by the market and with room to expand. It has all the certificates required to export everywhere in the world and has led the diversification of export destinies being the first to export Avocado to Argentina and Japan from Colombia,” said Mr. Stern.
Said ProColombia’s President Flavia Santoro in a statement, “The arrival of high-impact investment such as that of Grupo MANAGRO promotes the development of Colombia’s agro-industrial sector and contributes to taking firm steps towards strengthening our competitiveness, economy and export capacity.”
Pacific Fruits is one of the major exporting companies of hass avocado in the country and has approximately 70 employees. In 2019 the company exported around 250 containers with an approximate value of $9 million USD. The company was the first in Colombia to bring hass avocado to Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Argentina.
“This new investment opportunity for Valle del Cauca shows the investment confidence that we have been consolidating in the region, achieving the establishment of more companies from countries where traditionally we didn’t receive any investment,” said Executive Director of Invest Pacific Alejandro Ossa Cárdenas.
The company’s aim at MANAGRO is to bring the flavors of Colombia around the globe, and to position Colombia as a safe destination for development of new business and investments.
Valle del Cauca is the region in Colombia with the second largest extension of land suitable and available for hass avocado farming. International investors find in the region research centers, nurseries, crops, packing houses and the Port of Buenaventura, located approximately 200 km from the crops.
