DILI, 10 february 2022 (TATOLI) – The company Agropro Corporation, Lda invests in the agricultural sector, especially producing more quantities of Dragon fruit for commercialization in national and international markets, due to its economic potential.
The company’s activities have started agriculture since 2019 and cultivating four hectares of land in the Maubara Post administrative and Liquiçá municipality.
“Therefore the company decided to expand its production of Dragon fruit, as this is a fruit that will become one of the characteristics of Timor-Leste for other countries besides coffee”, said company manager, Ferdinandos da Costa, at Praia dos Coqueiros, in Dili.
Agropro Corporation started its cultivation with six thousand Dragon fruit plantations on two hectares, buying products from the Hera and Loes communities to continue to be developed in Maubara.
Thus, in 2020, the company harvested 1.5 tonnes of dragon fruit and five in 2021, and guaranteeing eight tonnes this year. The harvest time is scheduled for every six months between october and september.
The manager also explained that the company distributes the produce to stores and supermarkets such as Lita Store, Leader, Meimart, W4, Dili Mart, Fitun Maubara, and others.
Ferdinandos da Costa also guarantees that the company will export dragon fruit when production reaches 150,000 tons.
“We have a master plan for more planting in 2023, up to ten hectares to be more exported. We need a sufficient location to invest in dragon fruit production to reduce imports”, the manager said.
The company intends to export its products in the next four or five years to Australia, the United States, Singapore and Europe.
The manager further explained that Agropro Corporation is processing documents to meet all export requirements, and exports can be started with the smallest amount if the documents are ready.
Agropro Corporation Lda, created it in 2017 and has eight permanent employees consisting of six men and two women.
The company started, between 2017 and 2018, a feasibility study and the results confirmed that it is possible to invest in the agricultural sector, especially dragon fruit in the area concerned.
This study consisted of sending soil samples to Indonesia for fertility confirmation, as the results indicated the certainty of investing in these plantations.
It should be noted that TradeInvest, the Investment and Export Promotion Agency, I.P Timor-Leste, in December launched a digital guide for national entrepreneurs to access information about exports. The company considers that it is a very good idea to help companies start their export activities.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Rafy Belo
