Cambiaso: organic herb teas from Chile

The traditional Chilean company Cambiaso is a versatile business in which tea plays an important role, although its portfolio includes cereals, packaging materials and recycling. For nearly 20 years, the company has been selling a premium organic line of herb teas that it produces itself. This international tea supplier offers herbs both in bulk and as the finished product. The USA and Japan are currently the main customers, but in 2011 the company is anticipating new markets. (Picture: Garden of the Andes: organic range of Cambiaso)

The company Cambiaso Hnos. S.A.C. can look back over 135 years. The tea brand Té Supremo was introduced in 1964 and is on sale in all supermarkets in Chile. A number of other brands like Teekanne, Mildred Tea, Té Samba or Yerba Mate are imported by Cambiaso. With its wide range of black teas, aromatic teas, and herb and medicinal teas, this company is among the market leaders in Chile. In terms of exports, the United States is the most important country, and in 2001 a subsidiary was created there. For many years, Japan has been a major customer, and the company now supplies other Asian countries, South America and Europe too. With the Garden of the Andes brand, the company wants not only to appeal to the retail trade but also to focus more strongly on large-scale users like hotels, restaurants and airlines.
(Picture: Attractively packaged: five varieties of organic teabags in a wooden box)

Always receptive to new trends and new product lines, the company started, at the beginning of the 1990s, to cultivate organic herbs on its own farm in central Chile. In Quilpué, they have about 1,300 ha available, of which 200 ha are being cultivated. Here they grow camomile, peppermint, verbena, melissa and other leafy herbs, and a plantation of lime trees will produce lime blossom at a future date. The leaves of the peamus boldus bush, that is found originally in Chile, are wild harvested and processed into a tea beneficial for the stomach and bowels. They are very keen to preserve biodiversity and to maintain the cultural landscape. 300 cattle are raised on the farm in a low-intensity system, and the farm has its own tree nursery and herb propagation facility. (Picture: Eschscholzia californica is growing wild everywhere)

The organic range Garden of the Andes currently comprises nine herb teas and one black and one green tea. With its premium quality, Cambiaso wants to be the major player in the organic markets in the USA and in Europe. “The herbs are picked by hand, dried with special care and processed, and the special teabags are made of recycled paper without glue or metal,” explains export manager Hernán Peralta. He says the social standards for the farm and factory workers are high-level too. Packed in an elegant wooden box, the Garden of the Andes collection is an ideal present and a good product for the gastronomy and hotel industries.

Garden of the Andes has been on the market in Japan for 15 years and was served on board Japanese Airlines until it was taken over. In the USA, this organic range is now listed by Whole Foods Market and by local conventional supermarket chains like Publix, but Peralta says there is nevertheless still a lot of work to be done. “The Americans are not tea drinkers like the Chileans and the competition, especially in the organic sector, is intense.” However, exports of the organic line account for 10 % of total turnover. Similarly on Cambiaso’s wish list are the tea-drinking nations of Europe like Britain and Germany.
(Picture: The compost for the plant nursery in the foreground, farm facilities in the background)