The coir market in the Americas is diverse, intricate, and undergoing rapid transformation. Legro stands at the forefront of the industry, setting the standards for quality and uniformity by providing Botanicoir products to a broad spectrum of clients.
Heading up South America, middle America, the USA, and Canada is Pablo Segovia, who believes that consistency and quality are the reasons customers remain loyal to the Botanicoir brand.
“Our growers recognize the quality of Botanicoir products because they deliver clear yield benefits.
“Botanicoir offers a broad range of alternatives from substrates made of fine coir granules for propagation, to coarser blends appropriate for berries and vegetable crops. Also, Botanicoir ensures physical substrate properties (porosity and drainage capacity) with raw materials of homogeneous particle sizes, moisture content and compression ratio.
“On the chemical conditions, buffered coco substrate from Botanicoir is unique in its quality. Coco coir buffering involves the procedure of rinsing coco coir using a calcium-magnesium solution prior to its use as a growing medium. This method is employed to ensure that sodium levels in the coco complex are minimal, establishing an ideal setting for plant development,” he says.
Pablo explains that whether propagating, or growing short- or long-term crops, quality matters. “It’s cheap to buy alternatives, and money talks, but it’s a big risk. Sometimes growers are successful in taking this risk, but there is no consistency with product alternatives widely available in the market, and they are ultimately gambling.”
Pablo believes that reducing uncertainties is what his customers are doing. “Investing in the right substrate solution can deliver a 25-30% higher yield and about 20% potential savings in fertilizer and water consumption.”
Starting out at Legro as an international sales representative, Pablo, a qualified agronomist, now heads up different supply chains and varied customers in the Americas, from berry and mushroom growers in South America, avocado growers in Mexico, to soft fruit, citrus and medicinal cannabis growers in the USA and Mexico, and everything in between.
“Each supply chain is different and each customer matters to us, we are growing together with our customers. We don’t want to be the biggest seller of coir growing media, we want to be the best,” he says.
“Demand for coir is high and according to Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, we are in a transition of a four-fold growth from 2017 to 2050. Therefore, our philosophy is to be a responsible substrate producer able to share innovations and to continue to deliver consistent blends and customer support, paying attention to specific cropping demands and needs”.
“Say what you do and do what you say is our philosophy,” adds Pablo.
