Innovation

The way the world has evolved when regarding nutrition and health habits in the 21st century led to the innovation of PROFRUT, a company dedicated to fruit processing that seeks the maximize the utility of the grapefruit. The innovation began in an attempt to lower the costs of active ingredients. Then, came the idea to use the whole grapefruit, which led to the first Mexican herbicide developed by KIMMKAAL.

Various institutions helped develop the herbicide. For example, the research center CIDESI designed the process to obtain bioactive compounds and personnel at KIMMKAAL researched the market and sales potential.

This innovation came “hand in glove” with the company’s vision of making high quality, healthy products and in doing so, reduce waste they would’ve normally produced as a result of only utilizing the fruit slices rather than exploiting the whole grapefruit.

The idea originally came to be due to the lack of a 100% organic product capable of eradicating weeds that significantly reduce agricultural production. It was during a project for an entrepreneurship course at Tecnologico de Monterrey, where the primary focus is to create innovative products.

Inspiration

This began with a vision of making high quality, healthy products with reduced waste. This led to researching how to use the waste that is normally produced as a result of only utilizing the fruit slices rather than exploiting the whole grapefruit.

Overall impact

The success of the herbicide caused the company’s principles to emphasize innovation. There are now various innovative projects taking place within KIMMKAAL. After the product’s launch, there’s been a greater product development research at KIMMKAAL as well as the distribution.

Ever since the development of the herbicide which has zero residues for agriculture, the company has led a greater search to even control weeds in special ecological reserves.

For the company, in the short term, there’s been an exponential growth of clients thus leading to long-term goals such as increased capability to identify and develop new innovative products.

The best evidence to prove the success of the product is the constant demand PROFRUT gets for this herbicide.

Business benefit

This herbicide contributed to PROFRUT's strong economic growth, which includes constant demand for this organic herbicide. In addition, organic agriculture is estimated to grow at 15% per year (SAGARPA).

Social and environmental benefit

Both society and the environment benefit from organic herbicide, which are used for organic agriculture and also for weed control in special ecological reserves.

Interview

Carlos de la Garza, COO