Una nota sobre la tradición, la paciencia y la confianza que esperamos ganar.
To our growers, our customers, and our partners,
For nearly fifty years, our family of companies has worked with a single crop: the hazelnut. We have learned it slowly, how it grows, how it cracks, how it roasts, and how much trust it takes to move it from an orchard to a finished product an international buyer can rely on.
That knowledge has travelled with us across generations and across geographies. In Chile, it finds a new home.
We did not come to Chile simply to find another source of supply. We came because we believe in this origin, its climate, its land, its people, and its potential to become one of the most important hazelnut regions in the southern hemisphere. Chile is not just a new origin for us. It is a long-term commitment.
Our purpose in Maule is straightforward. We want to create trust between the people who grow hazelnuts and the companies around the world who buy them. Productores deserve a fair, professional, and accessible partner. Compradores deserve a traceable, quality-controlled, counter-seasonal origin they can plan around. We intend to be both.
We also believe value should be created where the crop is grown. For too long, much of Chile’s hazelnut harvest has left the country in-shell, with the skilled work done elsewhere. We would rather invest here, in processing, in capability, in people, and in the local economy of Maule.
Across our group, we have worked for years to source responsibly, from long-running programmes against child labour to traceability that now reaches hundreds of thousands of producers, and to invest in the technology that turns a raw crop into something a global buyer can trust. We bring the same seriousness to Chile.
We are mindful that this is a young industry, and we approach it with humility. We are one of several participants in a growing ecosystem, and we are glad of it; a strong origin is built by many hands, not one. Our ambition is to do our part well, patiently, transparently, and to a standard our name can stand behind.
Thank you for taking the time to know us. We look forward to building something lasting, together.
Hasan Cüneyd Zapsu
Founder & Chairman, Balsu