Naiciña was born in 1972 as a marketing company for agricultural products and in 1985 a strong commitment to chestnuts began. This Galician company based in Chantada (Lugo) with great international projection was a pioneer in the commercialization of chestnut flour and defends the integral use of soutos, from everything related to chestnut to berries and boletus.
«My country collected a transfer of a typical feed warehouse from that time to the Galician rural population. There, in addition to selling pens and cereals, certain agricultural products from the area were also purchased, such as millet from the country, potatoes or chestnuts from those people who were customers at the same time", explains one of those responsible for the brand, Miguel Ángel Areán. These products, sometimes purchased from neighbors, were later sold by the Areán family, who over the years decided to specialize in the production and marketing of chestnuts.
The firm made the first sales of fresh chestnuts in the large cities of Spain in 1984 or 1985, and the business evolved with the aim of adding value to this food as a processed product. Currently, the company sells wholesale in the Horeca sector, but it also offers consumers the opportunity to taste this fruit in different formats: in cream, in syrup, as marron glacé or cooked, among others.
Naicina's products
"We are the company of the Iberian Peninsula with the widest range of chestnut products that exists," explains Areán. Thus, Naiciña has everything from selected fresh chestnuts, disinfected and perfect for roasting, to "intermediate processing" products such as peeled and frozen chestnuts used by some food industries and the hotel industry or the line of processed products, which include creams and chestnut purées, chestnuts in syrup, vacuum-cooked chestnuts and brown glacé.
“We are the operator that certifies the most Castaña de Galicia, that the most chestnuts on the market are protected by the Protected Xeographic Indication“, indicates the person in charge of the brand. Naiciña was also the first firm to produce chestnut flour, which it began marketing in 1998, and among its innovative proposals is the chestnut and boletus cream, launched on the market in 2008.
Vacuum-cooked chestnuts, on the other hand, surprise consumers because they perfectly preserve the flavor of the freshly cooked fruit. This product is protected by both Organic Agriculture and the IXP Castaña de Galicia. The chestnut flour, puree and chestnuts in syrup are also organic, although a large part of these proposals are only sold abroad: more than 70% of the firm's organic turnover is made in the United States.
«The star products made by Naiciña are cooked chestnuts, chestnut cream and chestnut fariña. In terms of fresh chestnuts, we are a company that serves the best greengrocers and premium supermarkets in Spain«, Areán boasts, indicating that this activity represents a small volume in relation to the company's activity.
Naiciña's proposals, however, do not stop at chestnuts. The brand is committed to the full use of soutos by making jams from fruits such as blackberries or blueberries. Thus, the brand not only acquires the chestnuts but also the berries and boletus that grow on the farms.
The importance of small producers
«Non esquecemos or home. We continue to work directly with producers and we continue to market selected fresh chestnuts," explains Areán. The family knew how to see the demand that existed for this native product in the national market and has managed to position its brand internationally. The person in charge of Naiciña, however, regrets that the chestnut is not given the value it deserves.
And it is that Galicia and Spain are great consumers of this fresh fruit, but they still do not bet on the elaborated product, which is the one that generates the most wealth within the country. «Producing the raw material is very important, but it is also important that the deceived value remains within the country, which is our idea. It is a bad business to sell chestnuts in bulk to the French so that they can make peeled and frozen chestnuts, purées and creams. O mellor é do it all here, in Galicia«, explains Areán.
The business needs serious professionalization. Galicia has several companies with a "significant" transformation capacity, but production is not constant and soutos do not receive the necessary care. The Galician brand buys chestnuts from small producers. "We want this to grow and continue to be profitable, we have to do things well, in an orderly and organized manner", indicates the person in charge of the firm on the importance of caring for the environment and the trees.
Naiciña has been facing problems associated with "big moi" production since 2016, but it has the capacity to process some 1,500 tons per year between fresh and processed. The firm's work is conditioned by the quality of the chestnut, good customer service and price. The fruit cannot be damaged or infested with insects or fungi, explains Areán: "We are always looking for the health of the product and the organoleptic characteristics. For example, we do not sell hybrid chestnuts, which are large but which is like grating a piece of pau«. Thus, Naiciña bets on the chestnut Castanea sativa, the European.
“O chestnut castiñeiro, a froiteira, have a future and I am profitable with respect to other alternatives. From an environmental point of view, it is not so rare for a fire to break out. A xente demands more and more healthy and sustainable products, in that aspect there is nothing better than a chestnut or a souto«, explains the person in charge of the brand. Areán also insists that the chestnut is a food from which practically nothing is wasted: it is used for human or animal consumption depending on its quality, and the shells for biomass or composting.
«From the point of view of transformation, let's rub shoulders with the French and Italians. But in order to win them over, we need production to be professionalized and non-seasonal consumption of roasted chestnuts in the autumn, except that in the hospitality industry and domestic consumption, think that there are companies in Galicia that make things that are being sold in moitos countries because it is a product that, from a nutritional point of view, is a superfood but unfortunately is an unknown", adds Areán.
The purchase of Naiciña products can be made on the web for Spain and Portugal, although they are available in numerous countries through distributors, both for the Horeca channel and for retail. Thus, thanks to firms such as Naiciña, the chestnut manages to sneak into the homes of citizens with innovative and different proposals, giving them the opportunity to enjoy a rich and healthy fruit grown and transformed in Galicia.
