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Manuelita
Inversiones Manuelita S.A. (IMSA) is a Colombian agribusiness corporation, headquartered in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, whose main products are refined sugar, ethanol, palm oil, mussels and shrimp. IMSA is more commonly known as Grupo Manuelita or simply Manuelita.
Manuelita was founded in 1864 when James Martin Eder, better known in Colombia as don Santiago Eder, an American citizen born in Mitau, Courland, bought the hacienda "La Manuelita", located near Palmira, from the father of famed Colombian novelist Jorge Isaacs at a public auction. The farm's namesake was Manuela Ferrer Scarpetta, Isaacs' mother.
Eder planted various crops, including coffee in the farm, but eventually centered on sugar, and "on the first day of the first year of the twentieth century" he inaugurated Colombia's a new sugar mill which had Colombia's first steam engine, and replaced the former ox powered mill.Eder, Phanor James. (1959). El fundador Santiago M. Eder. Bogota: Antares.
After don Santiago's retirement in 1903, Manuelita continued to grow under the leadership of his sons Charles "Carlos" Eder, and Henry "Enrique" Eder, his grandson Harold Eder, and his great-grandson Henry Eder, who is still Chairman of the Board. As of April 1, 2008, don Santaigo's great-great-grandson Harold Enrique Eder Garces is President of IMSA. In 1980, the size of the company was cut in half, after barely surviving a hostile takeover from Carlos Ardila Lulle's business group.
Under Henry Eder's stewardship Manuelita's sugar business has recovered and surpassed its previous size in sugar production in Colombia and expanded its sugar production to ventures in Peru and Brasil, including a project named Arena Dulce, or Sweet Sand, in which nearly 2000 hectares of Peruvian desert were planted in sugarcane and are currently in production. Additionally, the company has diversified to other products such as shrimp (Colombia), mussels (Chile), palm oil (Colombia), ethanol , asparagus (Peru), and table grapes (Peru).
Many details of Manuelita's business affairs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are preserved at the Phanor James Eder Collection at the University of Miami, which includes a great deal of don Santiago's business correspondence.
External links
www.manuelita.com - the company website.
EDER, FAMILIA - article at the Luis Angel Arango Library, which is administered by Colombia's Bank of the Republic, the central bank.
Phanor James Eder Collection at the University of Miami
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Manuelita
