We have added a new member to our Board of Trustees with the incorporation of Hifas da Terra, a USC spin-off with 23 years of experience, which has become one of the most important biotechnology companies in Europe for the study and development of the medicinal properties of mushrooms. Research, innovation and sustainability are the pillars of this company based in the province of Pontevedra.

Together with Hifas da Terra we share a history of collaboration of almost a decade that is now consolidated with its incorporation to our board of trustees. Cooperation between the two entities began in 2014 and throughout this decade has been strengthened with participation in several I+D+i projects related, above all, to the forestry and agribusiness sectors. The most recent projects include MICOALGA-FEED, to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock farming through a natural diet based on fungi and microalgae, and GREENCASTANEA, in the agricultural sector, to improve productivity through the production of mycorrhizal chestnut by means of in vitro cultivation.

The incorporation to the board of trustees was ratified in a ceremony held at our headquarters in Santiago, in which Esteban Sinde, president and I+D director of the Hifas Group, and our general manager, Javier Pereiro, participated. This incorporation will strengthen and open new avenues of collaboration to transfer to society the results of the commitment to innovation and research.

Hifas da Terra was founded in 1998 by Catalina Fernández de Ana Portela, biologist, mycologist and PhD in Clinical Oncological Research at the University of Santiago de Compostela. The company, a pioneering biotechnology project born in Galicia, has become an international leader in the development of natural products based on the multiple properties of medicinal mushrooms to improve human health. At Hifas da Terra they put scientific knowledge in applied mycology at the service of well-being, not only in the elaboration of their products, but also by carrying out research studies and promoting I+D+i projects that maintain their commitment to the environment.

The Hifas da Terra team is joined by groups of national and international scientific advisors. They develop formulas that help health care from the bioactive substances of medicinal mushrooms and fungi, which they study, produce, extract and purify. Thanks to this exhaustive research, based on innovation in the use of mycology (I+D+i), Hifas da Terra has a wide range of products indicated to combat certain neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune diseases.