The Ozonizer company, located in the Marqués de Sobremonte neighborhood of Córdoba Capital, is dedicated to the manufacture of ozone equipment for air and water purification. Gonzalo Fontaine is an Industrial Engineer and Commercial Director of the firm that he founded 12 years ago with his father, the Agricultural Engineer Javier Fontaine. They are pioneers in the development of this technology that allows you to kill microorganisms, bacteria, viruses and fungi naturally, eliminating the use of chemicals.

Regarding the export of this product, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Mining, Eduardo Accastello, expressed: "One of the main axes that we have considered from the Government of the Province is the internationalization of companies, which not only allows foreign exchange to enter our country, but also puts companies that export at another level, favors competitiveness, expands the potential of production and opens new markets."

“At ProCórdoba we have been working hard on this policy and the example of Ozonizer confirms that traveling this path is possible and that with effort and teamwork it can be achieved for more and more companies,” added Accastello.

The firm has large clients such as Arcor, La Serenísima and Sancor, among others, and has a presence in industries in all provinces. They are mainly focused on the dairy sector, but the use of ozone is very broad in various types of industries and even in offices. On the other hand, its line for domestic use has sold almost 15 thousand devices throughout the country.

In this regard, Gonzalo comments: "Ozone is the most powerful natural disinfectant on earth. We have been having very good results at the national level, now with the coronavirus a lot of competition has arisen, but that is good because it allows the properties of ozone to become better known. Until two years ago we were 5 people in the company and today we are 10 with projections to grow in the short term, since with COVID the demand grew exponentially, especially for domestic equipment."

Foray into international markets

At the end of 2019, Ozonizer had the assistance of the province's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mining, through the ProCórdoba Agency, to travel to Expoalimentaria in Peru, one of the most important fairs for the food industry in all of Latin America. There, they participated as exhibitors at the stand of the Argentine Investment and International Trade Agency. “ProCórdoba helped us with financial support of 50% of the expenses to be able to travel, and that was very important since there we learned about the market and contacted a large number of potential clients,” explains the commercial director of the firm.

"This year - he continued - we were making commercial negotiations with a dairy industry in Lima and the sale was made in February. With the complications of the pandemic, we were recently able to deliver the products and complete our first export," added Fontaine.

The exported product is ozone equipment -ozonator- for the elimination of fungi in cheese chambers and the sanitization and disinfection of cheese-making environments. Basically the system converts oxygen from the air into ozone, taking air from outside and carrying out a physical-chemical process that breaks the oxygen molecule, so that ozone is formed, made up of three oxygen atoms.

Regarding the steps to be taken by the firm in terms of foreign trade, Gonzalo Fontaine explains: "We want to develop, especially in the dairy industry, in our neighboring countries. We had the intention and the challenge of going to all the fairs this year, including also food fairs in Europe, but we are going to have to wait for it to normalize. This sale to Peru is our first formal export since we became a Simplified Joint Stock Company. Previously we had made non-conventional or customary shipments. of testing to Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Angola, Panama and Chile. This means that we have many interested parties and good prospects for continuing to grow.”

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