Plantain processed into chifle and ripe plantain chips leave the Ecuadorian port of Posorja for the Arab port of Jebel Ali.
Chifle, a widely consumed snack in Ecuador, has crossed borders to the point of reaching the United Arab Emirates, this time under the Tortis brand.
Paola Tama is the owner of Tortis Natural Plantain Chips, a business dedicated to the production of chifles, ripe plantain chips. The raw material, which is the barraganete plantain, is collected from the plantations of El Carmen and Portoviejo, in the province of Manabí.
Tama's idea came about after traveling for study or tourism, and on that trip she looked for snacks and only saw chips. There were chips, but she was disappointed when she saw them from other countries like South Africa, Peru, Colombia. So, she set herself the goal of getting the Ecuadorian product to international shelves and began to experiment.
How? At home, he cut the plantain, fried it, and added salt. Then, he added flavorings and his family was part of the market research.
Little by little it took shape until in 2022 they established Tortis as a SAS (Simplified Joint Stock Company). They are now the PacificFields Holding group.
Its first export was in May 2023 in London, and it shipped seven tons of the product. In October of that year, it debuted in Florida, United States, with the same quantity.
Another step was its debut on Amazon. “It took us eight months, between what has to do with regulations in the United States to deliver to that market and nationalize the product. Amazon even asked us for video calls to rate the product. We also had an analysis of the raw material,” explains Paola.
HOW DID THEY GET TO THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES?
Tama met with clients in the United States and negotiations began. They saw the product presentations and liked the conditions. PacificFields Holding completed the export of the first container.
“We sent the tests and they gave us the OK. In Ecuador we had to do the whole labelling process, to comply with certain standards for the United Arab Emirates. The biggest challenge was translating into Arabic,” he says.
And he adds: “We sent the translations and obviously we had corrections. It took us about 40 days between making the official translations and adapting them to the market,” he says, mentioning that for that country they also use the labeling in English.
Tortis in their natural, sweet chili and ripe versions are on the shelves of the Lulu Hypermarket retail store , located in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait. They are in 200 points of sale within the territory of the United Arab Emirates.
“It was a great experience, the ripe one sells the most,” he says.
And with the introduction to this market, they send on average 10 tons of banana snacks (10,000 kilos) each month and arrive at Jebel Ali port between 45 to 60 days.
To other places like the United Kingdom, they send 32 tons of plantain snacks per month (32,000 kilos) and four tons of cassava snacks within 28 to 30 days; to the United States, they send 12 tons of plantain snacks per month (12,000 kilos) and they arrive in seven days. They go to Florida, Texas, New York and California.
And to Italy, which is another country they recently entered, they send eight tons of banana snacks (8,000 kilos).
INNOVATIONS
As part of the innovations, the British market approved their sweet potato chips and in this first four months they will send their first shipment.
In addition, they will open a Distribution Center in Florida to directly serve points of sale throughout the United States and are preparing to enter Walmart Online.
Tortis has four varieties of products: natural, sweet chili, spicy lemon and ripe. These come in 450-gram jars, whose suggested price is US$ 4.96 and 70-gram bags at US$ 0.65.
