De la Estancia organic polenta is produced by Buenaventura Farms, an Argentine farming company which is owned by four families. The families, together or independently, operate about 40 farms located throughout Argentina but with special concentration in the foothills of the Andes in the northwestern part of the country in the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy. The families currently cultivate nearly 50,000 acres of land and grow a wide variety of crops including soybeans, corn, wheat, sunflowers, sorghum and safflowers. All of the output is exported from Argentina.
In 2002 Buenaventura Farms decided to begin milling organic corn that the families grew at one of their farms, Estancia Buenaventura, into organic polenta for sale in the Seattle area. To that end they reserved the trademark “de la Estancia” and began selling their product later that year. They selected their trademark because “Estancia” is one of the most seminal Argentine words. An “Estancia”, roughly translated into English, is a place to “stay” or to “stop”. In the old days in Argentina, travelers crossing the immense tracts of uninhabited land would arrive at widely scattered farms where they would be welcomed and given food and shelter. These stopping places came to be known as “estancias”. Today an estancia in Argentina means a large farm and so the trademark de la Estancia means “from the farm”.
By 2005 de la Estancia polenta was widely sold on the West Coast of the United States but the owners of Buenaventura Farms realized that they needed to form a strategic alliance with a major food importing and distribution company. Their search led them to Source Atlantique, Inc., the large specialty food import company in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and the relationship blossomed into a broad agreement for the mutual benefit of both parties.
Buenaventura Farms will continue to be responsible for the production of the polenta and for its delivery to the United States. The polenta in each bag is made from corn that was grown on a single farm. Each season the families select the best quality corn and it is that corn which makes its way from the farm to the organic corn mill, to the packing and boxing plant, to the port of Buenos Aires, on to the United States via ocean cargo vessel and ultimately to the final consumer. There are no middlemen between the farm and the dining room table. Buenaventura Farms controls every step in the process and can trace each bag of polenta from the American home all the way back to the farm where the corn was originally planted.
Source Atlantique will be responsible for marketing the polenta in North America.
The parties will jointly own the de la Estancia trademark.
Source Atlantique, Inc. 140 Sylvan Avenue,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632-2508 Phone: 201.947.1000 Ext. 243 or 139
Email: sgoldsmith@foodimportgroup.com
