The urgent need that Agroindustria Tacay currently has to obtain large quantities of Cacay nuts — the fruit of a wild tree that grows in the Amazorinoquía region — shows that this could be a promising crop for the region.

The nut contains an oil that is the raw material used by this Meta-based company to produce cosmetics that hydrate, relax, and revitalize the skin, says Iván Carrillo, commercial director of the company.

The tree, which can grow up to 70 meters tall and can be found in a backyard in the plains or on a farm, begins producing fruit from the fifth year and continues producing nuts until around year eighty, which is its maximum longevity.

In Meta, Carrillo says, about 20,000 tons of oil could be generated from wild trees, and only five years ago Agroindustria Tacay began cultivating seven hectares on a farm in Puerto Lleras, later increasing to 50. A year ago, another company planted 120 hectares in Puerto Gaitán.

However, the Puerto Lleras crop, owned by Agroindustria Tacay, is only expected to begin producing this year, and those first small harvests “will be used for research, in order to understand the characteristics of cultivated crops, which may be different from those that grow in the wild,” Carrillo explained.

For now, they continue collecting fruit from existing wild trees in certain areas, where they prevented the trees from being cut down and reached agreements with farmers to train them in proper harvesting and purchase the fruit from them.

With the fruit, the company installed a plant in San Martín that selects and extracts the oil from the nut, and the raw material — the oil — is then sent to a manufacturing facility in Bogotá for the production of cosmetics.

Because the product has been so successful — Carrillo says — it is sold in cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Valledupar, and Yopal, as well as in New York (United States), demand has increased, and therefore this agroindustry needs more nuts to extract the raw material used in cosmetics.

For Export

The industrialization of the Cacay production process carried out in Meta won the Ecopetrol Innovation Award just four months ago, being recognized as the best entrepreneurial project in the Orinoquía region.

There, Óscar Iván Martínez Balaguera, manager of Agroindustria Tacay, spoke about the benefits of Cacay when receiving the award, through which they were given financial support, consulting, and opportunities to open new markets.

Martínez Balaguera says it is a fruit endemic to the region that adapts very easily to its microclimates, and in the future this region could become a major global supplier of raw materials as well as a manufacturer of very high-specification cosmetic products.

After research conducted by the company, Martínez notes that Cacay oil has the highest retinol content in the world (three times more retinol than rosehip oil), a high omega-6 content (twice as much as argan oil), and significant properties for cleansing toxins and free radicals from the skin, due to its vitamin F content or combination of omegas 3, 6, and 9.

Source: EL TIEMPO
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otras-ciudades/cacay-33229