Lauro Raatz (Yerba Mate Pajarito)

Lauro Raatz S.A., owner of the Yerba Mate Pajarito brand, is one of the most traditional yerba mate companies in Paraguay. Its history began in 1956 in Bella Vista, Itapua, when Lauro Raatz and his wife Sara Ulbrich began the adventure of "green gold" on old yerba mate plantations -where Lauro's father, Don Gustavo Raatz, had already had previous crops-. In its beginnings the raw yerba was produced in a hand-operated dryer and marketed in bulk in a small pantry of its own, later selling some 300 packages a day with manual packaging. In October 1985 Pajarito began to export, with Taiwan being its first destination, with the product packed in wooden boxes. In 1988 it acquired a sachet packaging machine (tea bags), becoming the first Paraguayan company to market yerba mate in this format. The firm has been recognized with the "Exporter of the Year Award" granted by Sudameris Bank in 2015 and keeps a family museum, the Raatz Museum, which preserves the history of the company and of yerba mate. Today Yerba Mate Pajarito -internationally appreciated and described by some European consumers as the "Mercedes" of yerba- exports to more than 20 countries, keeping its plant and headquarters in Bella Vista, Itapua, the yerba mate heart of Paraguay.