Publications
Publications
- December 2023
- HBS Case Collection
Santa Elena: Table Grape Production in Chile's Water-Challenged Regions
By: Forest Reinhardt, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
Abstract
In the fiscal year ending in September 2022, Santa Elena, Chile’s fifth-ranking table grape exporter, a grape producer and exporter since 1980, had exported around 3.5 million boxes (18-pound each). But, due to a 13-year-long drought that plagued table grape-growing regions in the country, Santa Elena had lost some 120 hectares of their own land, and ceased production of some 200 hectares of third parties. Further complexities were added by heightened competition from Peru and Mexico, and by China's expanded harvesting period. The company's executives had to decide whether it was time to diversify into other products, or to move production south, where production costs were higher but there was more water.
Keywords
Plant-Based Agribusiness; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Natural Resources; Food; Environmental Law; Problems and Challenges; Weather; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chile; South America; Latin America
Citation
Reinhardt, Forest, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago, and Mariana Cal. "Santa Elena: Table Grape Production in Chile's Water-Challenged Regions." Harvard Business School Case 724-019, December 2023.