IMAGES: Courtesy of Mercedes Fajardo and Daniel Lasso
"We thought about merging Lanzarote's agricultural production with high-tech cosmetics." This is the idea that Mercedes Fajardo and Daniel Lasso had to create the company Lanzarote Natural, which combines products from the land with high-quality creams. The project arose after Mercedes had a traffic accident for which she spent months and months in hospitals. The couple knew how to take advantage of this tragedy and this time to found a business with "love for the land of Lanzarote."
Lanzarote Natural markets aloe, cactus, wine or Tinajo goat's milk creams, as well as food products such as salt. "All from our land," they indicate. But, in addition, they are exploiting a type of active tourism that respects the environment. They have projects such as "Sponsor Lanzarote" or "Our Grandmother in the Kitchen", with which they intend for visitors to "really" know the customs and traditions of Lanzarote.
This company now sells its products in wineries in Lanzarote, in pharmacies in the rest of Spain and exports to countries such as Germany, Italy, Portugal or France. In addition, products can be purchased through the website www.lanzarotenatural.com
The beginnings
Mercedes Fajardo and Daniel Lasso, who live in Tinajo, wanted two years ago to "do something" with "the land and agriculture" they had. "We thought about merging Lanzarote's agricultural production with high-tech cosmetics," says this Lanzarote native, who says that when he raised it "people thought we were crazy."
The beginnings were difficult, but they found people willing to help them. "I went to the Martínez Tapias laboratory, in Barcelona. I told them our idea of making cosmetics with agricultural products from Lanzarote. They loved it and financed it for us. He told me that when I could, I would pay him," says Daniel.
In this way, the company was launched. "It was very fast. Francisco, the owner of the Reymar winery, in Tinajo, immediately collaborated with us. He gave us wine and we started producing cream with this broth", they say. In addition, from the beginning they had the support of the president of the Regulatory Council of Denomination of Origin, Javier Betancort.
With a much more solid company, they managed to get the Cabildo to authorize them to use the distinction of Biosphere Reserve in their products and that the Ministry of Agriculture would let them use the agricultural product seal, becoming "the only ones on the island" with this recognition. In this case, they also received help from the former Minister of Agriculture, Nereida Pérez.
Lanzarote Natural has an installation of about 15,000 square meters of land in Tinajo. In addition, they have several warehouses, given by the grandchildren of Dr. José Molina Orosa, which were old tobacco drying rooms. "We renovated them, put in windows and now they are very good," explains Daniel.
The products
Cosmetics are "the basis" of Lanzarote Natural. Its characteristic seal is a deformed vine with aloe. The creams have a medium and a high range, with a methacrylate container. They are used for the face, hands and body in general. "We innovate with Lanzarote's agriculture, with the people from the countryside. On Canary Islands Day we presented the Tinajo goat's milk cream.
In addition, the packaging of this cream is also in braille, which although it costs a lot, we believe that all people have the same right and we must live in equal conditions," they summarize from Lanzarote Natural.
Its products have many properties and are paraben-free. "Wine is one of the greatest antioxidants," explains this businessman, who is also experimenting with the "lees" that remain in the barrels, and is achieving concentrated creams that are "very good." "We do it with waste that the wineries threw away," he says.
For its part, the range of goat's milk, cactus or aloe creams are "extremely hydrating." "Almost 80 percent of aloe and cactus is water. In fact, when our grandparents in the 30s went to Guatiza, Mala and Arrecife, the camels ate prickly pears to hydrate themselves," he says.
Saldelanzarote.com
But in addition to all these cosmetics, Mercedes and Daniel have also managed to value the salt from the Los Cocoteros salt flats, turning it into a gourmet product. "We went to talk to Dámaso Betancort, owner of the salt La Gaviota. He liked our idea, we took the salt, treated it and we have been in the market for ten days and we are saturated," says Daniel happily, who came up with this idea after seeing that in Lanzarote even Himalayan salt was being sold and not from the island.
This couple intends to market a different salt every "little time". "We are going to mix the salt to make it aromatic with plants from our land, such as cilantro. If you throw a seed on the land of Lanzarote, without burying it, the following year you have a potato or whatever. It is very grateful and you have to take advantage of it, because we love our land," says Daniel, who has some hard years ahead, in which he plans to continue innovating with the help of his wife. "It's our company, we have hope and we're going to get it," he says convinced.
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