Video

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Hi, I am Roberto Garrido and I grow organic and biodynamic apples and pears for Nature & More. I am one of the four owners of PAI / Fruempac Farms. Thank you for buying our apples - or pears!

Our company, PAI / Fruempac Farms is an association of four family-owned farms. I work closely together with my son Sebastian, who is responsible for packing and export. We are located near General Roca in the Rio Negro Valley, near the great “black river” Rio Negro, where 65% of all apples and pears in Argentina are grown. We grow Granny Smiths, Gala, Fuji en many other apple varieties, and pear varieties too: William, Conference, etcetera. The orchards are irrigated with some of the purest river waters in Argentina, that originates from glaciers in the High Andes.

"I decided to grow fruit that tastes like in the old days"

I’ll tell you the history of our company. In 1970, four of us decided to join forces to work together and learn from each other. We still worked conventionally then. Shortly thereafter, Franco, one of us, heard about organic farming during a visit to Italy. He began implementing organic practices on his farm, and in due course we decided to do likewise. We became certified organic in 1999!

We keep trying to improve on our practices. A few years ago we started using compost on our farms, to improve the quality of our soil even more. This works very well.

As a company, we have our own packing facility that is completely dedicated to organic production. Our farms are well isolated from our conventional neighbors; all this helps us to maintain our high organic standards.