Cooperativa Capel

Most of its croplands are in the Elqui Valley where the company was founded as a producers cooperative.

It is one of the largest producers of Pisco in Chile (the other is the Sociedad Cooperativa Control Pisquero de Elqui y Vitivinículo de Norte Ltda (also called “Pisco Control”)).

Salina explained that the company's growth factors have been the cocktails, representing nearly 35 percent of its sales, and “it can keep growing because it is a product line which permits many innovations.” At the end of 2008, Capel's profits were US$8.8 million, 78 percent greater than in 2007.

It began in 1938 as a way for farmers to join forces in the face of rapidly plunging exports.

Today it has expanded to over 1,200 members and associates in numerous grape-growing regions throughout Chile.