With the industrial chicory harvest estimated to be 62% complete, Beneo Orafti Chile, whose production plant is located in Pemuco, anticipated that a drop of more than 10% in crop yields is expected for this season, due to climatic factors.
Alberto Cañete, the company’s agricultural manager, also acknowledged that “the high intensity of the latest frontal system is making harvest operations and logistics very complicated, given the excess water in the soil.”
Beneo Orafti Chile is a national leader in the production of chicory at an industrial level, whose processes focus on extracting, refining and marketing the inulin and oligofructose that come from the roots of this vegetable, fiber that is used as an input in the food industry.
The professional explained that “our method of supplying raw material is direct, that is, from the harvester to a transport car and then to the truck, which finally takes it to the plant. We do not make piles in the field. Therefore, the operation of the plant and its production plan directly depend on the harvesting and dispatch capacity, and the conditions for this in the field.”
He said that the harvest this season is expected to end at the end of July.
Asked about the impact of climatic factors on yields, Cañete said that “we do not yet have final figures, since the 2024 campaign is not over. However, it can be anticipated that the average crop yield will be lower than last season (57.3 tonnes/ha) – the second best we have had in the history of Beneo Orafti in Chile – so the basis for comparison is quite high. Our expectation is that the yield will be close to 50 tonnes/ha.”
Hiring at a lower price
For the current 2023-24 season, 5,730 hectares were contracted from Maule to La Araucanía, which represented a historic increase of 58% in the area compared to the previous season.
According to Alberto Cañete, in the current contracting campaign for the 2024-25 season, “our goal is to contract 20% less surface area.” Despite the decrease, he said that, “we are quite optimistic for the years to come. We have positive prospects for the global inulin market, derived from the growing trend in the systematic reduction in the consumption of sugar, fats and calories in food, where the increase in fibers replacing these is —without a doubt— an advantage of our final products.”
The executive added that, “for Chile, the outlook is especially beneficial, considering that our recent investments in capacity position us in a competitive position to address any increase in global demand. We expect better prospects in 2024 and sustained growth in the following years.”
The current contracting campaign, however, offers lower prices than those of the previous campaign, that is, today the value offered amounts to $67,000 (US$ 70) per clean ton of chicory, in circumstances where last year the price was $74,000 (US$ 92), which represents a drop of 9.5% when compared in pesos.
“On this occasion, it was not possible to set a higher price, mainly because market trends are still affected by the after-effects of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the contraction of the global economy. This is a reality that occurs in operations with farmers in our plants both in Chile and Belgium,” argued the agricultural manager of Beneo Orafti.
Along these lines, he said that, “as we understand that the current agricultural financial situation is not the most favorable, our company has made available to them a package of complementary conditions to the price, which keep chicory as an attractive alternative for rotation”, among them, a line of financing with an interest of 0.625% monthly, which allows financing all the costs of the crop, including inputs, soil preparation, rent and irrigation, among others.
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