Mexican grower uses electronical system to speed up harvest
The facilities located in Vizcaíno, in the state of Baja California Sur, started producing round and cherry tomatoes in 1994. Step by step the crop area started to grow, and now they have hundreds of hectares of vegetables in an area close to the Vizcaíno Natural Reserve.
It is an area with low population density and therefore NASE needs to hire workers from other Mexican states. This way, the company offers the workers and their families a complete package of benefits, like schools, health care, housing and transportation, recreational areas, and so on.
One of the objectives of NASE is to increase their efficiency in their daily activities and that is why they have an intensive R+D program to include new technologies in their production facilities.
That is how NASE's manager, César Zepeda, found the Agrifast Tom System tool on the internet: “I watched a few videos on the internet and I thought this tool could help us be more efficient and tye the crops faster.” He immediately contacted Piassa, the Tom System distributor for the North West of Mexico. “Piassa helped us a lot and they offered us a few demo machines to start trying the new clipping method. They supported us in the initial phase of the project in order to make it work.”
Rubén Saucedo, CEO and owner of Piassa, has been working in agriculture for decades. “I had the opportunity to discover the Tom System in 2011, just after it was launched. From the beginning we thought it could be interesting for the Mexican market, even if the labor costs in Mexico are lower than those in US or Europe. We also detected a trend to increase productivity and efficiency in the agri-business sector in Mexico.”
However, in the beginning it was not easy, and many trials and demonstrations were done in order to show the Tom System in Mexico: “it is always difficult to introduce a new product in the market. Nobody wants to be the first one using a new technology. Usually, every client waits until another one tries the new product. If it works, then everybody wants to copy. That is why we thank NASE for their confidence in us to help them start with the Tom System.”
Agrifast always considered Mexico as one of the most important markets: “for us Mexico is a clear objective, as it is one of the countries in the world with the most extensive greenhouse market.”
Agrifast, together with Piassa, visited NASE's facilities in Vizcaíno and helped them start up the project: “it is impressive how they grow such high quality vegetables in this desert. We think the Tom System can help them in tying more efficiently their crops and we are very grateful to NASE for their confidence in our products,” points out Alberto Lizarraga, Product Manager of Agrifast Tom System.
The Tom System increases the clipping speed of tomato, sweet pepper and cucumber crops above 1000 plants per hour, reducing labor costs and avoiding the break of the heads of the plants, which is one of the typical problems when using the twisting method to tie the crops.
For more information:
Negocio Agrícola San Enrique
nase.com.mx
Piassa – Agrosense
Rubén Saucedo
ruben.saucedo.piassa@gmail.com
Agrifast
Alberto Lizarraga
alberto.lizarraga@agrifast.es
www.thetomsystem.com