Currents | Las Marías invests 8 million dollars to modernize its sawmill in Virasoro

2025-10-29 -

The traditional company from Corrientes is moving forward with a million-dollar investment to completely renew its forestry-industrial plant. The new European line, fully automated, will increase productive performance and position the sawmill among the most modern in the country.

In Gobernador Virasoro, the Las Marías Establishment is advancing in an investment to incorporate new machinery into the industrial sawmill, with an investment of eight million dollars aimed at modernizing the plant and strengthening its forestry unit, a business that began more than half a century ago as a productive diversification and today is consolidated with its own identity. It is a fairly large investment, confirmed Stuart Navajas, president of the Forestal Las Marías sawmill in dialogue with Bichos de Campo. We are talking about about eight million dollars to set up a new highly automated line. We estimate to operate it with ten people per shift, compared to the current twenty-five. European technology and leap in productivity On the property, movements have already begun to install the new sawing line, of European origin, equipped with three-dimensional scanners that measure and position the rolls with millimeter precision. We estimate that performance will increase by eight percent. In an industry with such tight margins, that percentage makes a big difference, explained Navajas. In addition, he highlighted the incorporation of a state-of-the-art continuous dryer, unique in the country. It is a contraflow, it is loaded from both sides, and what comes out dry is conditioned with the green wood that enters. You gain time, volume and quality. The quality of our dried wood is unmatched by anyone, he said with pride. A forestry tradition of more than half a century The Las Marías forest area was born in the 196s, with the implantation of 5 hectares of pine and eucalyptus trees. Today, the forest heritage exceeds 6,7 hectares, with plantations of Taeda pine, Pino elliottii, hybrids and different species of eucalyptus. The sawmill processes part of that wood and produces around 7, cubic meters annually, of which 7% is exported to destinations such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines, the United States and Central America. The rest supplies the domestic market, which is currently experiencing difficulties due to the decline in construction and public works. The problem we have is logistics,” Navajas admitted. We bring empty containers from Buenos Aires, we load them here and they come back full. There are almost two thousand kilometers of freight. We pay about three thousand dollars per container, while taking it to Malaysia costs only five hundred. Hope is pinned on the recently inaugurated port of Ituzaingó. If we manage to get the wood out there and reduce the cost to two thousand dollars, we all win: the company and the forestry producer. That could mean five hundred dollars more per hectare, the businessman estimated. Sustainability and long-term vision Despite the uncertain economic context, the Las Marías plan is projected for the long term. The company has FSC certification for responsible forest management and works under environmental and social criteria that guarantee the sustainability of the raw material. The forests are managed with cutting shifts of between 18 and 25 years, with genetic improvements, mechanization and permanent environmental control. It is an investment that will put us on par with the best sawmills in the world, Navajas assured. And Im not exaggerating. No one here has the level of automation that we are bringing. When it is mentioned that the public usually associates Las Marías only with yerba mate, Navajas smiles: The forestry unit is the unknown part of Las Marías. We want it to be known that we also make wood, and we do it well. That phrase summarizes the groups new commitment: giving visibility to its forestry business, doubling the technological capacity of its plant and demonstrating that in the productive map of Corrientes, Las Marías not only harvests yerba leaves and tea: it also produces high quality and added value wood.