The Fico company was founded with the aim of enhancing and transforming the Fico d’India.

We started from the cladodes (shovels) that every year are first thinned out from the plant and then thrown on the ground to be subsequently crushed by agricultural means, we have done some research and we realized that the cladodes have extraordinary properties in some ways superior to those of the fruit. We have seen that in other countries such as: Mexico and Portugal, a jam is produced, so we did some experiments, but after some tests, we realized that this was not the right way because the product was not pleasant enough. Between one thing and another we said:

“If the cladodes (from a certain point of view) belong to the category of vegetables, why do not we try to make a savory cream?

And so after several attempts we created the first prickly pate of prickly pears.

The speech was a little different for the peels! Our priority has always been to create a quality product starting from the base that is the fruit! therefore giving highest priority to the choice (sorting) of the product and especially the color of the pulp. Every day we peeled thousands of prickly pears and go to deposit all those skins in the rubbish bin seemed to us an absurd waste, so we asked ourselves: since the taste of the peel is a bit ‘bittersweet, because we do not try to produce a chutney??

The experiment was successful and also the first bitter-sour cherry jam was born, better known as chutney!