Raul Arcos Lozano

Palenque

Hi my name is Raul Arcos Lozano, and I am the General Manager and owner of Grupo Palenque. Here in Mexico we grow organic mangos .. thanks for buying our products.

Grupo Palenque’s history dates back to 1980s. I always wanted to grow fruits and vegetables and I knew Oaxaca was a renowned mango growing region here in Mexico. I therefore decided to work and live in Oaxaca in order to raise the necessary money and knowledge to buy a proper sized mango orchard. Fortunately for me this was already the case in 1983 and I bought the “El Palenque” orchard from the previous owner. I love that name so I decided to keep it. Years passed and I was able to acquire more and more orchards, but none of them could be compared to Palenque. Palenque has been a symbol of inspiration and hope for me since day one, hence I decided to name my exporting company after my orchard: Grupo Palenque. Fortunately for me, two of my sons decided to join me on this journey, and I am very happy to teach them my mango expertise as much as I can.

Our packing houses and orchards are located in zones were poverty levels are high. Therefore, it is our commitment to hire people from these communities as much as we can. By doing so, we are helping to build these areas economically.

Interview with Raul Arcos Lozano

Can you tell something about the region where your farm is located?
My orchards are located near the border between Chiapas and Oaxaca, close to a municipality called San Pedro Tapanatepec. The climate here is warm sub-humid, with some rains in summer. Conditions here are optimal to grow mangos, and that is why I picked this place in particular to start my business.

Why and when did you go organic?
I decided to become an organic grower in 2011. One of the reasons why I decided to do so, was to stay competitive in the market. As years passed, I understood there are more benefits to look for when you are growing mangos organically.

What do you see as the benefits of organic farming now?
The benefits of being organic are numerous. Besides adding value to my products, it helps to prevent a loss of topsoil, toxic runoff, water pollution, soil contamination, soil poisoning, as well as preventing the death of insects, birds, critters and other beneficial soil organisms.

What do you like most about your work?
I love being in the orchards. That is my passion. Every day, I drive to each one of the orchards and I make sure everything is being taken care of. Fortunately for me, I work with committed people just like I am. Our love for mangos makes it easier for me and my staff to work in coordinating daily packing house and orchard activities.

Do you have any special plans for the (sustainable) future that you can tell us about?
Yes, this year we decided to increase our organic production, thus we started changing all of our conventional orchards to organic orchards. In addition, we will keep on working with our current photovoltaic cell system, which is currently installed in Oaxaca and Nayarit.

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soil

The soil in this area is a rather clayey soil. We feed the soil using organic compost, made out of wood and brushwood from the mango trees. Moreover, we use mango remains and sugar cane remains to complete the organic compost mix. When it comes to leguminous plants we conducted some trials in one of our orchards called Rancho Nuevo. It definitely helped improving the soil, and keeping the nutrients that were applied.

biodiversity

Biodiversity is the key to life so we also try to stimulate natural biodiversity in our orchards by planting neem trees. These serve as a natural wind shield for the orchards. Furthermore we have bee hotels, which help us pollinate the mango flowers.

Furthermore, when you walk through our orchards you regularly spot lots of animals and insects including snakes, frogs, scorpions, armadillos and iguanas. We have placed signs within our orchards which forbid activities like hunting, making fireplaces and cutting wood from trees. These help to reinforce our commitment with nature and protect our biodiversity.

society

SOCIAL

First and foremost as an employer I want to create a safe and pleasant working environment. My workers tell me that they feel proud to produce a mango which is free from pesticides, herbicides or any other unnecessary substances and they are more willing to eat it because of this. For me, I guess the organic way of growing made me more conscious and aware about the health of my consumer, and I feel grateful for that.

Furthermore, at Grupo Palenque, we are constantly investing in our workers’ education and professional formation. Year by year, a job description manual is given to every manager in the company, as well as training courses provided to our staff before and after the mango season. This year, we started a social development program, where we encourage and promote emotional intelligence, decision-making and the promotion of values to each and every one of the staff members in Grupo Palenque. Moreover, we included listening sessions, where the workers can be free to express their opinions and ideas about their professional and personal life.

There are obviously more things we do like organizing an in-house football competition, cultural activities, mother and children’s day. This year, Grupo Palenque will build a recreational area inside the packer house, where our workers can relax and have a good time. The recreational area will have a pool table, a ping pong table, arcade machines, T.V. with cable and tables for board games. We make sure that all of our workers have decent living conditions. In several occasions in the past the company has helped its most committed workers by providing them with building materials.

In Palenque we take the matter of woman’s rights very seriously, since almost half of our staff are women. We always encourage our women to speak up if there is something they want to talk about, regarding any working or personal matter. Besides this, we have visual tools that help our people better understand women’s rights and their role in our company.

climate

We believe in sustainable energy and that is why we have installed a set of solar panels in Oaxaca and Nayarit, and we plan to do so in Sinaloa, as well. Furthermore, In conventional farming, the manufacture, transport and application of fertilizers and pesticides can account for as much as 80% of the energy input. Since we grow organic, our mangos are considerably more energy efficient than their non-organic counterparts. As an organic grower we also do not use artificial fertilizers. Artificial fertilizers increase the release of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas which is 300 times as powerful as CO2. Our products are shipped by plane although we hope to switch to ship transport in the future.

water

Water is an important issue and in order to limit the use we are working with special spray irrigation systems with micro-aspersion. There is no impact on the water supply of local communities as we do not have direct contact with the drinking water provisions in the area. We rely only in our own wells to do our job.

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