From Ñuble to the world: The associative journey of chestnuts and muscatel from Ñuble to reach foreign tables

The Marrón Andino and Moscin cooperatives, each consisting of 11 and 10 small farmers respectively, have achieved their first international exports, with Marrón Andino exporting chestnuts to Italy and Moscin exporting Muscat of Alexandria wine to Sweden. This success is attributed to their associative efforts, strategic planning, and support from INDAP, including financing and advisory services. The cooperation's focus on quality and Fair Trade certification has been key to overcoming challenges and entering new markets. Their examples inspire other pre-associative groups, showcasing the power of cooperativism in enhancing the competitiveness of small-scale agricultural producers.

After a work of learning, logistics and investments to achieve the best possible quality, the chestnuts harvested in the Marrón Andino orchards managed to reach Italy, a feat for this group of farmers who, more than 5 years ago, committed to the goal of exporting the brown variety chestnuts produced in El Carmen, which required not only the desire, but a series of steps and investments to achieve it, an effort that individually was almost impossible, but which they undertook as a peasant associative company. CHESTNUTS The industrial value of the brown variety, together with the decline in European production in recent years, generated a sustained increase in demand. This is the comparative advantage that the 11 partners of the Marrón Andino Peasant Association Company took advantage of, which has its chestnut orchards of the brown and sativa varieties in Carmel lands. “Marrón Andino arises from associativity, because we were not going to be able to export alone,” commented Alex ...