Incarpalm: 20 years packaging Ecuador’s productive storyA beginning rooted in agriculture

It all began in 2006 with a specific goal: to supply corrugated cardboard packaging to the family banana business that would eventually become Corporación Palmar. What started as a response to a concrete operational need became the foundation of Incarpalm, a company that, two decades later, has established itself as a leading name in Ecuador’s packaging industry and is increasingly expanding its reach into the floriculture sector.

Its history cannot be separated from that of Don Euclides Palacios, founder of Corporación Palmar. Originally from Girón, Azuay, Don Euclides transformed a Land Rover once used to transport goods nearly five decades ago into the starting point of what is now a diversified business group with operations spanning agribusiness, services, packaging, logistics and real estate, and exports reaching five continents.

Incarpalm emerged as a strategic response within that productive ecosystem: a way to secure quality, strength and operational continuity in-house for the business that had started it all.

That family legacy has now reached its third generation of leadership. Today, Ing. Fernando Guamán Palacios serves as Incarpalm’s CEO, combining respect for the founder’s legacy with an industrial and sustainability-driven vision focused on the future.

Large-scale operations, with floriculture on the radar

Two decades after its founding, Incarpalm operates with Industry 4.0 technology and automated processes, an investment that has allowed the company to double its production capacity following the acquisition of a new plant.

Today, the company produces more than 1.3 million boxes a day and operates around the clock to meet demand across an entire country whose agricultural exports — flowers included — depend to a significant extent on packaging capable of withstanding the journey to markets around the world.

This capacity is supported by a network of strategically located satellite operations throughout Ecuador, allowing Incarpalm to serve more than 900 clients across industries as diverse as bananas and other fruits, fishing and shrimp, general manufacturing and, increasingly, floriculture.

Although 70% of its production is still dedicated to banana packaging, the sector that gave rise to the company, Incarpalm sees export floriculture as a market with needs closely aligned with those it already knows how to serve: strong, precisely sized boxes capable of protecting a perishable product throughout the logistics chain, from the farm to the final consumer in markets around the world.

The people behind the packaging

Incarpalm is clear that beyond production figures, its greatest asset is its people.

The company generates more than 600 direct jobs and 500 indirect ones, a workforce it refers to as its “talento cartonero” — the people who make it possible for the packaging produced in its plants to reach destinations around the world every day, including the boxes carrying Ecuadorian flowers to major international markets.

This investment in people goes hand in hand with a commitment to international standards, a particularly relevant factor in a demanding industry such as floriculture.

The company’s operations are supported by a range of certifications covering management and security (ISO 9001 and BASC), sustainability and Ecuadorian identity (FSC and Mucho Mejor Ecuador), and food safety (FSSC 22000).

These certifications provide a framework for ensuring that its cardboard meets the traceability, quality and sustainability requirements that international flower buyers are increasingly demanding across the entire supply chain — not only from farms.

A growing partner for Ecuador’s floriculture industry

Incarpalm sees floriculture as one of the areas with the greatest growth potential within its portfolio.

Its installed capacity, nationwide logistics coverage and experience packaging high-value perishable products align with what export-oriented flower farms look for in a packaging supplier: guaranteed volume, consistent quality and certified support.

Its 20-year trajectory reflects a steady evolution: from an in-house solution for Corporación Palmar’s banana business to a company with its own industrial capacity, nationwide presence and internationally recognized standards, with floriculture emerging as one of the sectors where it plans to strengthen its position.

That journey also reflects an Ecuadorian business model that started with a specific need and successfully scaled into a potential partner for one of the country’s most important export industries.

As it marks two decades in operation, Incarpalm reaffirms its mission of being a strategic partner to Ecuador’s productive sectors, including floriculture.

Its state-of-the-art infrastructure, efficiency-driven management and commitment to certified quality set the course for sustained growth, while preserving the standard of excellence that has defined the company since its beginnings.

20 years of being #LaCartoneradelEcuador