The daily work in the field with farmers led Quipasur's advisors to request fertilizers that had the best performance and production according to the characteristics of each soil. This concern was taken up by Renato Casas del Valle, founder of Quipasur and precursor of liquid chemical mixtures, who, with his more than 40 years of experience, saw that his company could favor Chilean agriculture thanks to its innovative laboratory, state-of-the-art technology and timely distribution logistics.

With more than 100 different formulations and the possibility of developing customized products for each customer's needs, Quipasur has positioned itself as one of the leaders in the domestic liquid fertilizer market.

Casas del Valle explains that NPK fertilizers (based on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) are increasingly used in agriculture, both in Chile and in the world. This is due to the need to save water and to the fact that, with this type of product, an exact dosage of fertilizer can be applied directly to the plant (without the losses generated by solid fertilizer) through a drip irrigation system.

NPK fertilizers are formulated based on these three components, although their different proportions depend on the requirements of each crop. Casas del Valle also says that these formulations can include other microelements that the customer needs to add according to their needs, such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, boron and others.

"This depends on the nutrients in the soil and the requirements of the plant, because it is not always the same. Even in the same paddock, the amount of nutrients needed by each plant can be different. There are many variations and if you don't have good stability, you can cause a collapse in the system. That is why it is important the dosage, the stability and the background of the products", says the founder of Quipasur.

It is precisely for this purpose that Quipasur has its own chemical department and laboratory, where each mixture produced is validated. The company manufactures and maintains inventories of raw materials with which it can ensure a continuous supply for its regional distributors at a competitive price. In addition, to further guarantee the safety of its formulations, the company provides its customers with a second certification by important external laboratories.

"In our 41 years in the industrial market, we realized that our competitors did not certify their products, so a customer could receive by mistake a different formulation than the one he needed. We saw an opportunity and decided to provide quality seals on each of our products, giving our customers greater security," said Casas del Valle.

What is the process like?

Quipasur develops liquid fertilizers for all types of crops and currently has a presence from the IV to the IX region of the country. "We have the capacity for production, storage and logistics. When customers ask us for a product, we are on the ground within 24 hours," says Casas el Valle.

After a soil analysis to check the nutrients present in the soil and the requirements of the different plants, Quipasur orders the necessary solid products and mixes them according to the solubilities in its reactors at the San Bernardo plant so that they are stable. Once ready, the formulations are filtered and stored in warehouses until they are approved by the laboratory.

This product is delivered directly to the customer, who doses it in their fields. For these processes, Quipasur also has agronomic and chemical advisors, who provide the products and assist in the fields if necessary.

The permanent on-site assistance to customers, the chemical department and laboratory together with the quality control are the support that Quipasur has in this active work of product development, which are permanently exposed to the latest technology worldwide.

Liquid fertilizers are the present and future of agriculture, so having an ally like Quipasur, which generates solutions hand in hand with its customers at every step, is essential when it comes to growing the business safely and with the best products on the market.

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Quipasur, a chemical products manufacturer with more than 40 years of experience, in its effort to expand its presence in the foundry area, achieved this 2021 an alliance with the multinational ASK Chemicals, a world leader in products for this industry, which will allow it to introduce its global quality refractory paints to the Chilean market.

Quipasur's general manager, Raúl Silva, welcomed the news and said that "we wanted a leading global partner in the foundry industry, a recognized company with international experience of the highest level, to help us bring new technology to Chile, to constantly change products based on the new needs of the sector. This is how we achieved this alliance with ASK, our new partner that will contribute to the development of our product offering".

ASK Chemicals is one of the largest solution providers for the foundry sector, with a global network spanning several countries around the world, bringing world-class technology and the latest industry trends.

The product manager of ASK Brazil, Carlos Luft, commented that "Chile is a market in which we were present in past years, customers in the foundry area already recognize us for our quality and efficiency, but two years ago we were looking for a distributor in this market that would meet the standards we needed. After an exhaustive search, we found in Quipasur the best alternative to bring our products back to Chile, with local availability".

In Chile, Quipasur, a national leader in the foundry market, will be represented by Quipasur refractory paints as of January 2021, thus complementing its current line of specialized products to meet top-level requirements.

The refractory paints developed by ASK have a high performance and good resistance to high temperature, allowing to obtain parts of very good surface quality, saving time in their cleaning.

Luft also explains that the second step is to start offering ASK's line of special or auxiliary products, which includes release agents and cleaning products for foundry tools. Both lines will continue to be manufactured in Brazil, whose plant works with two fundamental pillars: automation, which guarantees the same quality in all products, and the guarantee of raw material quality.

The product manager of ASK Brazil emphasized that "it is important for us to have a long-term relationship, our brands will be associated and we are placing great trust in Quipasur. In this sense, we believe that Quipasur is prepared for this partnership and is the ideal distributor, since it has a team with very good technical and market knowledge, which is difficult to find".

Quipasur's general manager commented that "we are happy because we now have the confidence and backing of a leading international brand. We are sure that, thanks to ASK's support and our four decades of experience in the industry, Quipasur will position itself as a leading company in the refractory paint market.

The commercial manager of Pinturas Antifouling, Daniel Poirot, has been on the island since last year to "be closer to our customers and thus be able to develop solutions tailored to their needs".

Food and Industrial Civil Engineer Daniel Poirot, with more than 25 years of experience in multinational and national companies in the food industry, left his life in Santiago in November 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and moved, together with his wife and four children, to the island of Chiloé to begin a new challenge: to be the "eyes of the customer" for Quipasur in the area of salmon farming for the whole of southern Chile.

Their desire to undertake this new challenge is a reflection of what this step means for Quipasur. The expansion of its antifouling paint division for the salmon farming area is part of its business strategy for the coming years, and the installation of a commercial office in Castro is a sign of its commitment to its customers in the south of the country.

Quipasur has its "antifouling" paint factory in Santiago, from where they produce customized solutions for the different needs of its customers and where they work with the main suppliers of raw materials (Chemet, Nordox, etc). The "antifouling" paint is used to impregnate the nets where salmon grow in the ocean, preventing the development of "fouling or biofouling" allowing the correct flow of oxygenated currents from the sea.

"We make these paints and today the objective is to be on the island, where the customers are, so that we can be closer to them and improve the development of products to specifically address their problems," Poirot said.

Quipasur also has the particularity of having a productive scale size that allows it to differentiate its offer, both in its formulation and quantities. A marine center located in Castro has different problems than one in Puerto Montt or Aysén, so they need solutions dedicated to those specific problems. Quipasur's capacity allows it to create the most suitable paints to face these diverse complexities at the best cost/benefit.

Currently, most suppliers do not have flexibility in this type of products, since they are manufactured in large "non-agile" factories in Santiago or imported from Norway. Quipasur plans to go ahead and handle "tailor-made" production and stock directly in Chiloé, which will give it an enormous advantage in delivery times as the products will be available immediately.

"This first step of approaching and installing a commercial operation base of Quipasur on the island of Chiloé, seeks to serve the salmon market in a better way, generating a closer relationship with the client and developing products completely tailored to their needs", concluded Poirot.

Quipasur apuesta por la personalización en la nutrición vegetal con su nueva división agrícola Agronutrientes.

La empresa chilena referente en producción química lanzó una nueva marca dedicada en exclusiva a la formulación y venta de agronutrientes para el mercado agrícola nacional.

Con cuarenta años en el rubro de la producción química y diez en el negocio de la nutrición vegetal, Quipasur marca un nuevo hito en su historia este 2021 con el lanzamiento de su nueva marca, Agronutrientes Quipasur, división enfocada exclusivamente a la producción y formulación de químicos para la industria agrícola.

“Tras una década trabajando mano a mano con distribuidores locales en la producción de fertilizantes líquidos, adquirimos el expertise necesario para aventurarnos en este nuevo desafío comercial que significa el lanzamiento de una marca, con la seguridad y el peso que trae el nombre de Quipasur como respaldo”, señaló el Encargado de Desarrollo y Ventas de Agronutrientes Quipasur, Juan Andrés Naour.

Esta nueva división tiene dos áreas: por un lado, la de formulación personalizada de fertilizantes líquidos, y por otro, el de venta de productos foliares de la mano de gigantes de la industria como Fertiglobal, el brazo agrícola del reconocido Grupo Landerello, empresa italiana con más de 200 años en la industria química.

En el área de fertilizantes, explica Naour, la diferenciación de Agronutrientes Quipasur estará en la oferta de un paquete tecnológico completo a los agricultores. Además de formular fertilizantes líquidos en base a NPK

(Nitrógeno, Fósforo y Potasio) de forma personalizada y ajustada a las necesidades de cada cliente, la compañía nacional también proporcionará en formato foliar aquellos nutrientes que, por diversas razones, no sean compatibles entre sí. De esta forma, el cliente obtendrá de un mismo proveedor todos los agronutrientes que necesita para llevar a cabo su negocio.

“El de fertilizantes líquidos es un mercado relativamente nuevo y vemos mucho lugar para avanzar con nuestra propuesta, que se basa en la calidad, lo local y la personalización”, comentó el Encargado de Desarrollo y Ventas de la nueva división.

Además, destacó, al tratarse de una empresa 100% chilena, Quipasur es de tal tamaño que le permite ser flexible, rápida, eficiente y cercana al tratarse tanto de la toma de desiciones como en la atención al cliente.

Quipasur es una empresa familiar con más de 40 años de experiencia en la elaboración de productos químicos y líder en las diversas áreas donde opera: minería, salmonicultura, agroquímica, forestal, nutrición animal y pinturas. Fundada en 1980, actualmente cuenta con tres plantas de producción en Nos, Lo Espejo y Coronel para satisfacer la demanda de los mercados en Chile, Argentina y Perú.

Hay un momento en la vida de una empresa en el que ya no es suficiente simplemente seguir funcionando. Se empiezan a crear planes para el futuro, a mirar nuevas áreas en las que ir explorando y a pensar en grande.

Quipasur tuvo ese momento en 2010. Juan Javier Casas del Valle llevaba un tiempo pensando en profesionalizar la empresa creada por su padre Renato 30 años antes. Cuando su propuesta fue vista con buenos ojos por el fundador de la compañía, decidieron contratar a Raúl Silva como Gerente Financiero y comenzar a atraer a talentos y profesionales para ocupar cargos dentro de la empresa en las áreas financiera, comercial, estratégica y de recursos humanos.

Cuatro años más tarde, los Casas del Valle comienzan a soltar el día a día de Quipasur y pasan a formar parte del recientemente creado directorio, dejando en manos de Raúl Silva la administración de la empresa familiar.

El nuevo gerente general se puso manos a la obra de inmediato. Junto a la consultora liderada por Alfonso Mujica, Scaling Company, crearon la planificación estratégica de la compañía para 2023. El foco se puso en duplicar la facturación para esa fecha y potenciar las nuevas líneas de negocio que habían estado surgiendo en los últimos años, aprovechando las industrias fuertes de Chile.

“Escuchando al cliente hemos ido explorando nuevos productos para saciar las necesidades de las empresas. Queremos ser partners de nuestros de clientes”, comentó el Ejecutivo.

En coherencia con esto, el Gerente General también destacó la importancia de su compromiso con los mismos trabajadores de la empresa, con quienes se busca siempre el trabajo en equipo. Las personas son fundamentales en Quipasur y trabajan día a día por su bienestar y desarrollo.

Tres industrias, tres oportunidades

Para enfocar los esfuerzos, Quipasur declaró tres áreas en las que potenciaría su participación, y que son las tres industrias en las que hoy más están creciendo: minería, salmonicultura y agroquímica.

Chile es un país minero por excelencia y el Directorio vio en esa industria una potencialidad inmensa de crecimiento. Es así como ya tienen un negocio bastante consolidado en el área de la fundición hace 20 años y pretenden seguir aprovechando sus oportunidades.

La venta y exportación de salmón ha tenido un crecimiento enorme en los últimos años en el país. Por eso, Quipasur ya contrató a un equipo profesional dedicado exclusivamente a este sector, en el que participan con la venta de pintura antifouling para las redes. “Queremos ver cómo avanza ese negocio para ver las posibilidades y necesidades que van surgiendo”, señaló el Equipo Ejecutivo.

Finalmente, la geografía del país también le permite ser líder en agricultura. Con esto en mente, Quipasur entró hace tres años en el negocio de los agroquímicos.

Mirando hacia adelante

Además de potenciar estas tres áreas de negocio, el Gerente General y el Directorio tienen nuevos planes de internalización para Quipasur. La empresa ya lleva cuatro años con presencia en Perú y este año el objetivo era instalar una planta química en ese país, sin embargo, los planes se vieron frustrados con la llegada de la pandemia del coronavirus. No obstante, el Gerente General enfatizó que éste “sigue siendo un desafío a corto plazo, fabricar en Perú y ser un referente sudamericano en la industria de la fundición”.

Además, el mundo cambió y se hizo mucho más consciente del daño que le estaba generando al medio ambiente. “Hace 20 años, era un orgullo ver cómo la planta humeaba, significaba progreso, producción, una fuente laboral, apoyo a la economía del país. Hoy ya no se ve como algo positivo”, dijo Silva. Por eso, Quipasur en los próximos años se encuentra enfocada en alinearse con las nuevas tendencias ecológicas hacia una economía circular.