- Founded by Dr. Catalina Fernández de Ana Portela, Hifas da Terra is Europe’s largest biotech company specialising in the research and development of pure mushroom products, offering natural and innovative solutions to enhance health and quality of life.
- Committed to leading R&D, the company invests 62% of its profits into areas such as gastrointestinal health, immunology, oncology, musculoskeletal health, and mental health, developing products from 100% pure and organic mushrooms.
- Hifas da Terra currently markets and exports its products to 14 countries, with plans to expand into the Middle East and the United States.
Hifas da Terra, the first European biotechnology company founded with a focus on researching and developing mushroom-based products, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The company’s core values are quality, science, and sustainability.
Since its creation in 1999, Hifas da Terra has made it its mission to expand and apply mycological knowledge, the result of years of studies and projects, to create products for the benefit of the worldwide population.
“We research the molecules and their applications in the right concentrations so that people can benefit from everything that the scientific literature and our studies tell us about the effects of medicinal mushrooms,” explains Dr Catalina Fernández de Ana Portela, the company’s founder.
The beginnings of Hifas da Terra date back to the thesis project of its founder Dr Catalina Fernández de Ana Portela, a seed that grew into a small family business founded in Portamuiños, Bora, in the Pontevedra area of Spain, to extract the properties of mushrooms and implementing them in the health sector.
Her specialisation in applied biotechnology was possible thanks to the land on which mushrooms have been cultivated since the 1970s.
After several years of fantastic research, a terrible fire sadly destroyed most of the facilities in 2006. This disaster motivated the founders to promote organic and sustainable crops, contributing to fire prevention and rural development.
One year after the fire in 2007 Hifas da Terra in 2007 was awarded the first prize for rural landscaping by the Xunta de Galicia.
This award was followed by thirteen others such as the 2023 PuntoGal Spin-Off Award in the “Quality Seal” category, which was awarded to the company for maintaining a prestigious business career.
Ongoing commitment to R&D&I
Always at the forefront of R&D&I in biotechnology, the company devotes 62% of its profits to various research areas such as gastrointestinal, immunology, oncology, musculoskeletal and mental health.
This scientific research and its preclinical and clinical studies result in high-quality nutraceuticals for healthcare. The results, particularly in oncology, confirm this investment.
Sustainability
Sustainability is another pillar of Hifas da Terra, with a clear goal: to preserve nature as we know it. For this reason, the company has developed Hifas Green Extraction Technology®, one of the most revolutionary, efficient and sustainable extraction systems available.
This system ensures the optimal quality concentration of the mushroom’s active ingredients using natural and responsible solvents, reducing waste and guaranteeing excellent quality in the production of food supplements. In addition, Hifas da Terra has been a member of CRAEGA (Galician Council for Organic Agriculture) for over 20 years, ensuring Hifas da Terra’s suppliers comply with the highest standards of organic farming and results in the cultivation of hundreds of hectares of land without pesticides.
In addition, Hifas Foresta (a company belonging to the Hifas Group that deals with the application of mycology in the environmental field) in collaboration with public and private organisations plants more than 50,000 mycorrhizal chestnut trees each year, which helps to offset carbon emissions. The company also favours renewable energies and has more than 60 solar panels, 2 biomass boilers and a geothermal system. All heating systems are powered by 100% renewable local energy. The awareness of sustainability is so strong that the company is consistently committed to sustainable packaging. From the use of recycled materials to the replacement of plastic with glass, every decision is a step towards an ecological future.
A Promising Future
Hifas da Terra has accelerated its expansion and internationalisation which has led to the company marketing and exporting its products in 14 countries through its subsidiaries and distributors. Soon Hifas da Terra will be present in The United States, Qatar and some jurisdictions such as China, South Korea, Iraq and Kazakhstan.
Hifas da Terra is part of the Hifas Group, a commercial organisation focused on applied biotechnology that includes companies; Hifas da Terra, Hifas Forest, Hifas Innovation Hub, Hifas Vet and Hifas Biologics. Hifas da Terra is already working on its next venture, Hifas Biologics, a spin-off that will focus on the antibiotic capacity of fungi (such as penicillin). For 25 years, the group has been working passionately to improve the well-being of the planet, its sustainability and the health of humans, animals and plants.
