Agri Terra to Donate School, Soup Kitchen

    NUEVA ITALIA, PARAGUAY, July 26, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Munich-based Agri Terra Group is currently present in seven countries on three continents, and the group grows fast. Its clients invest in agricultural projects such as orange plantations, cattle farms or vegetable greenhouses mainly in Paraguay, and other Latin countries.

"In Paraguay, the surrounding conditions are next to perfect for investing in agriculture," explains Carsten Pfau, the group's CEO. "We generate double-digit returns for our clients, and we make a lot of money ourselves. But investment should not be limited to projects alone, it should also consider social aspects," the German entrepreneur continues.

In rural areas outside the big cities, the public school system isn't as developed as it is in urban metropoles. Access to private schools is very expensive in Paraguay, and often far beyond the possibilities of rural working class families. Agri Terra pledges to help. Suburban village Nueva Italia (New Italy) will receive a school open to everybody in order to provide a solid education to children of rural families. At night, the same school will offer free vocational training to adults. The German investment group takes care of all cost.

Since 2016, the company already supports a school in small rural town La Colmena, where the group operates several large orange plantations. Now, also families who live in or around Nueva Italia will be able to send their children to a local school, instead of sending them twenty miles away to capital city Asunción, spending hours in traffic. As a reward for actually attending class, the school will offer free lunch to pupils and their parents. "The soup kitchen is intended to serve lunch to pupils and their parents, but we won't reject anybody who wants to eat with us," says Pfau.

The Paraguayan school system is quite good in international comparison. Literacy rate is above 95% and most children have access to free public education. However, rural families often find it difficult and time consuming to send their children to public schools many miles away.

"We are business people, we want to make money. We don't run a charity. However, investing in education and vocational training, even though it has a charitable character, isn't about charity at all. It is about us," Carsten Pfau explains. "By providing a decent school and a free lunch, we increase the attractiveness of the region in which we invest commercially, therefore we can motivate people to move here and come to work for us, or with us. And of course, some of today's pupils will probably become part of our staff tomorrow, so it goes without saying that we want them to receive the best possible education. The better people's education and training, the higher the wages and salaries they can claim. The better our staff is educated and trained, the more profit we will turn. It is a win win situation by all means." The pragmatic approach of multimillionaire Pfau has already started to inspire other companies to follow the example of combining business with a strong social responsibility.

The Agri Terra owners, German brothers Carsten and Michael Pfau, invest and conduct business in Paraguay since 1995. Successful real estate investors, the brothers shifted their focus towards agriculture over the years. Starting out with the purchase of farmland and small cattle investments, the brothers now manage under the Agri Terra umbrella large agro-projects all over Paraguay. The company is among the largest 1% of cattle owners (out of 142,000 total), and it operates the country's third largest orange plantation. Substantial investments in greenhouses (vegetable production for supermarkets) as well as other citrus plantations complete the portfolio. In addition, the group develops residential country clubs and invests in the field of landbanking.

Agri Terra only offers projects to investors if the company invests ist own funds into the project as well. Most of the times, Agri Terra is the single largest investor in a project.

Key executives in the company count with decades of experience in their respective fields of expertise. A combination of experience, expertise and dedication provides a solid base for the company's investments.

Headquartered in Munich, the Agri Terra Group is also registered in Austria, Panama, Paraguay and Hong Kong. In addition, the company counts with representatives for the US and Canada, Switzerland and Romania.

# # #