With the works already completed on the new European hazelnut shelling plant in San Gregorio, commune of Ñiquén, the company Agrichile – a subsidiary of the Italian chocolate company Ferrero – is preparing for commissioning in the coming weeks, which will allow it to receive the fruit of the 2024 season, whose harvest has already begun.
This was confirmed by Camillo Scocco, general manager of Agrichile, who indicated that, “we are fine-tuning some details and completing formal procedures, to soon officially announce its entry into operation. Along these lines, we have already carried out the first industrial tests satisfactorily.”
Currently, the company has a cleaning and drying plant in the San Gregorio field, to which is now added a hulling plant. “Apart from the shelling and storage process, the new plant will be prepared for the direct delivery of products, which facilitates the entire process. Added to this is cutting-edge technology in security and automation,” the executive explained.
The company, which has been operating in the country for more than 30 years, has plantations and four cleaning and drying plants between Maule and La Araucanía, however, it has only one hulling plant, located in Maule, so , San Gregorio will be the second in the country, which, according to Scocco, “will allow us to double AgriChile’s current production capacity,” since it has a processing capacity of 40 thousand tons (in shell).
The new facilities, of 7 thousand square meters, “will allow the creation of more than 40 jobs permanently, while in high season it could reach 100. This represents an increase of 10% of AgriChile’s workforce,” accurate.
This is an investment close to US$ 50 million that aims to respond to the projected demand for the coming years.
2024 season
It is estimated that in Chile there are 46,447 hectares of European hazel planted, between Maule and Los Lagos, of which 4,204 are owned by Agrichile, which, at the same time, is the largest buyer of the fruit in the country. Ñuble, meanwhile, concentrates 15% of the national surface, with 6,965 hectares, of which 1,046 belong to the company.
In 2023, production reached 63 thousand tons in the country, and for the 2024 season it is expected to reach 72 thousand tons, thanks to the entry into production of new plantations.
In Ñuble, production in the 2023 season reached 6,209 tons, which represented an increase of 25% compared to 2022.
“By 2024, our projections at the national level indicate the expansion to approximately 44,000 hectares of hazelnut with different varieties, coming from 600 different agricultural companies throughout the country and a production of 72,000 tons of fruit. For its part, the Ñuble region has experienced strong growth and we hope to exceed last year’s production. Surely the climatic conditions along with the speed of harvesting and drying will play an important role in the final quality of the fruit,” Scocco pointed out.
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