The Company

SUGAR MILL SANTA MARIA was established in 1988 as an alcohol distillery, later transformed to what is today, a fully equipped organic sugar mill. Santa María is located 150 miles south of Paraguay´s capital Asuncion. This area is where the Jesuits in the 16th. century began their evangelization. They built reservations and missions to educate the Indians and then taught how to work the soil and raise cattle in an organized way. All of this has made the inhabitants of this area very conscious in the conservation of the natural resources, and in relation with the rest, very educated about this matters. Our company has helped very much in the continuous education of the farmers of the region through seminars and constant support.

SUGAR MILL SANTA MARIA farms a total of 2.500 hectares of organically grown sugar cane. Of this total approximately 2.000 hectares are in hand of 910 private farmers that are assisted technically and through the supply of certified organic seeds, compost, and the loan of equipment to keep their farms sound and free of any contaminants. Special emphasis has been put in the management of various crops sharing their land in a balanced manner with cattle breeding, and crops like beans, corn, manioc, that will insure their families, self sufficiency and crop rotation.

The certification process has been a very long one, and our sugar cane farms have been supervised and controlled since 1997 by the prestigious Swiss survey and control company S.G.S. (Societe Generale de Surveillance). Not only have they verified that all the standards have been met but have occasionally performed spot checks taking soil and plant samples for analysis in independent laboratories. Absolutely no fertilizers, no herbicides, no pesticides are used in our sugar cane fields.

Our sugar cane and our products are certified by ECOCERT, and CERES, both from Germany, and according to Kosher rules.

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