Tara industry

An opportunity for the development of campesinos

Founded in 2001, Silvateam Peru is the fifth manufacturing plant of the Group, with a state of the art technology and knowledge derived from the proven experience in Research & Development of the Italian Group.

Silvateam Peru represents an economic and social development opportunity for an entire underdeveloped region.

Apart from the large direct investments made in the production plant of Lima and in two Silvateam owned plantations, that were created in co-operation with the Botanic Department of the University of Lima, in the Huánuco region and the desert area of Ica, Peru. The commitment by Silvateam Peru represents an important source of income for thousands of local communities engaged in the Tara harvest. This investment provides work for communities of workers called campesinos that live in the inaccessible valleys of the Andes where the Tara tree grows wild or in the desert plains where the Tara grows thanks to an irrigation system. This investment provides income for families who otherwise live at a subsistence level in an underdeveloped agricultural area where the resources are limited.

Silvateam’s commitment to creating a well-established tannin supply chain is an important contribution to the development of these areas. It is even more significant if we take into consideration that despite the good growth rates of the last few years, this South American country has an extreme poverty index of 20.7% (data 2016).

Because of the successful marketing strategies and a favorable appraisal of the Tara products in different sectors, such as the automobile and food industries (tannins for vegetable tanning of leather car seats and Tara gum used as natural thickening agent), in just a few years the production and sales of Silvateam grew significantly. These sales are the result of the exports to industrialized and developing countries such as USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina and provides 50% of the income for more than 10,000 campesinos families. This is an example of the redistribution of resources from developed countries to an area representing a region of great historical and natural appeal, but still behind in economic terms.