Who
we are?
We want to radically transform sugar by preserving all the wonderful qualities made possible by nature.
Sugar as it should have been from the start.
Our Mission
In its natural state, sugarcane juice is one of the most healthy, nutritious, and natural foods around. Yet when the juice is extracted, and goes through the industrial process to make refined sugar, so much is lost, to the detriment of us all. We want to make sugar as it should have been from the very beginning. We aim to preserve all the wonderful bounties of fresh sugarcane. Our sweetener is 100% natural, unrefined, and non centrifuged. Our vision is for POLICANE® to nourish, feed and heal the world in the sweetest way possible… literally.
Our Story
It has taken over two decades to make POLICANE® a reality. Initially, the aim was to make a shelf-stable sugarcane-based sweetener. This was something that was thought to be impossible within the sugar industry. Practically by accident, we discovered that the unique industrial process for shelf stability could be used to preserve policosanols. At first, we could only preserve small amounts, and it was hit-and-miss. With much trial-and-error, we were able to preserve the policosanols in a high enough quantity. We had to run trials and separate every variable imaginable from the process of industrial sugar production – temperature, exposure to air and oxidation, and how to get the most out of every cane stalk. We made it so that you could go through an industrial process starting with raw, unwashed cane and end it with a pure, clean, delicious product. It took us years, but we did it. We were able to achieve perfection.
In October 2022 OUR PRODUCT WAS AWARDED TOP SELECTION IN INNOVATION at the Salon International de l’Alimentation (SIAL) in recognition for our efforts. The biennial SIAL Paris is the most important food trade show in France and one of the foremost in the world.
The POLICANE® Team
Jorge Gonzalez began his career in 1973 as chief engineer in RioPaila Sugar Mill after graduating from Louisiana State University in 1971 with both Industrial Engineering and Sugar Engineering studies and work. In a career spanning four decades, he had leadership roles in various industries such as sugar, agriculture, construction, and banking. He later served as a member of the Board of Directors of RioPaila Castilla, RioPaila Agricola and Castilla Agricola, the largest agro-industrial group in Colombia, from 2005 to 2020. Jorge was born and raised at the RioPaila Sugar Mill where his love for the industry and its people became a driving force in his life. He has four issued US Patents and another one pending in the sugar industry.
US PATENT # 10,493,121 B2 JEGU METHOD FOR PRESERVING POLICOSANOLS IN CANE JUICE.
US PATENT # 10,632,167 B2 APRIL 28 2020 CHOLESTEROL REDUCING PRODUCT.
US PATENT # 11,357,815 JUNE 14 2022 PRESERVATION OF POLICOSANOLS.
No greater pride than working with this team of engineers which has brought vast knowledge, dedication and expertise to bring the world POLICANE®.
Founder & CEO
Engineering Team:
Hader Quintero is a food engineer and also obtained his M.B.A with a specialization in marketing. He has over 13 years of experience in the food industry with leadership roles in the development of new products, processing equipment, and analysis methodologies. He worked in RioPaila Sugar Mill overseeing the launch of new products for mass consumption and new developments for companies such as Nestle, Kelloggs of Colombia, Bimbo, Colombina and Unilever. Hader has spent the last seven years working with Jorge Enrique Gonzalez in the implementation, analysis, and continuous improvements for Policane’s industrial process, achieving a unique process to solubilize the policosanols, aldehydes and trace elements in the product. Hader worked in the design and implementation of the first two POLICANE® mills.
Guilermo Caicedo is an Electrical and Telecommunications engineer, associated with the sugar industry since 1979, with experience and formation with all the processes that are undertaken in a sugar mill, starting with the cane yards, the milling and preparing, followed by the generation, distribution and consumption of vapor and electrical energy based on the “bagasse” of sugarcane. On the other hand, the treatment of the juices, their clarification, evaporation and crystallization to the point of drying and packaging, all under the best parameters and practices that comply with the norms and improvement of quality, environmental control and automatization of each and every process. The experience and knowledge acquired during allthose years have served Guillermo Caicedo as the principal component to contribute to the development of POLICANE®, as a syrup and granulated. This marvelous product that preserves the multiple nutrients contained in the sugar cane juice, plus the policosanols which are present in the sugar cane and which we had not taken advantage of until now; in this development we have obtained a new non centrifuged product making use to the maximum extent the equipment that exists in a sugar mill. Guillermo designed the first two POLICANE® mills in Costa Rica.
Ulises Osegueda graduated as a Chemical Engineer from the University of Costa Rica in 1992 and later obtained his MBA in 2002 from the same university. Ulises has over thirty years of experience in the sugar industry as a production manager and a further twenty years of experience in the production of non-centrifugal dehydrated sugar. He specialized in the production of specialty sugars such as Demerara sugar and organic sugar. In 2007, Ulises founded and is the president of TecnoSugar Asesorias Tecnicas, a consulting firm for sugar mills in Central America. He was also a founder and partner in UMA Chemical Technologies, a company that developed a chemical product used as a clarifying agent in sugar industry laboratories. During 2021 and 2022, Ulises was in charge of the construction and design successful implementation of the very first production. plant for POLICANE® at Azucarera El Viejo, S.A. in Costa Rica.
The Mills
We owe a debt of gratitude and admiration to our friends at Azucarera El Viejo, Costa Rica – the first sugar mill to not only industrially produce POLICANE® but realize its vast potential for a better world. A fabulous team that produced a product worthy of the SIAL award. https://azucareraelviejo.com/es
POLICANE® is sold under the Azucarera el Viejo brand – AZALÚ in Costa Rica and is available for purchase. https://azalu.life/
Mónica Jenkins M.
Commercial Director
mjenkins@elviejocr.com
(+506) 8840-1290
https://www.azucareraelviejo.com/
COOPEVICTORIA and their magnificent team is licensed and ready to produce POLICANE® on a large scale. They worked hard and obtained a superb product. https://www.coopevictoria.com/
We are honored to work with such fine professionals who are now part of the POLICANE® Family.
