A brief interview with Martín Wielandt, founder of Doble Valle , published in LUN's Mercado Mayorista magazine .
On his farm in Mallarauco , a town in Melipilla, farmer Martín Wielandt has been producing figs since 2012. Since this fruit ripens very quickly, generating surpluses, he looked for something to do with the ones he could no longer sell fresh.
"From the first harvest, I also started offering them dehydrated," explains Wielandt, who has 12 hectares planted.
Chile has a climate that's very good for figs because it has distinct seasons: a cold winter, which favors the fruit, and a very warm summer. It's also very resistant to lack of water, he explains.
In 2015, a merchant from a distributor who bought from him suggested the idea of making fig coffee .
"I'd never done it before, so I started researching on the Internet and read that it was once used as a substitute for coffee beans when it was scarce during wartime," he says.
Their coffee is gluten-free and is produced using dried figs that are roasted and then ground, allowing consumers to prepare it at home using domestic coffee makers. "For practical purposes, it's the same as whole bean coffee; I sell it to roasters under the Fueguino brand and also in bulk," he explains. It costs approximately $10,000 per kilo to the end consumer.
Wielandt harvests 90,000 kilos per year , of which 75,000 are sold fresh and 15,000 are dehydrated, the latter having a value that varies between $4,000 and $7,000 per kilo, depending on their size.
"I also sell fig trees in bags, ready to be planted in orchards , to growers from Arica to Angola, to encourage increased production, because there are very few of them in Chile," he says.
Producing them is somewhat complicated, Wielandt explains. "Normally, fruit farmers harvest their orchards in a couple of weeks, as they do, for example, with walnuts and peaches. Figs and brevas are harvested gradually, between December and January or March and May, respectively. This can be a challenge for large producers, but not for small producers with up to 15 hectares," he explains.
When planted commercially, the farmer says, it's not harvested at high altitudes because the orchard is designed to make it unnecessary. "They're also afraid that the fruit will ripen too quickly because they don't know the proper dehydration techniques. It's very difficult to sell fresh because it's highly prized, but they can dehydrate and market it throughout the year," he adds. He sells from 100 plants up, at a price of $4,500 plus VAT.
Many things can be made from dried figs, such as pasta and snacks . For example, Wielandt made pasta that she sells to bakeries, pastry shops, and ice cream parlors. "I even have a client who makes fig vinegar," she adds.
Publication date 2023-09-18
Written by Melissa Forno
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