Our story

Meet the founder

In 2018, Martin Becerra Sandoval, a Mexican-Canadian mechanical design engineer, decided to make a career pivot to pursue his passions for entrepreneurship, the nopal Opuntia plant from Mexico and the preservation of the natural environment.

Martin was born surrounded by nopal Opuntia plants in an agricultural region located in the fertile volcanic mountains of Guanajuato state in central Mexico. In those mountains, he learned about the importance of nopal Opuntia plantations and the benefits this incredible plant can provide for people and the environment.

The origin of the business idea

Martin has a great ability to identify new business opportunities and create innovative products and services. He is a product-oriented entrepreneur who created The Nopal Nutrition Company by combining his engineering background with his passions for the nopal Opuntia plant and the natural environment.

After studying the nopal Opuntia for several years, Martin realized that the nopal Opuntia growers from Mexico were not taking advantage the great potential that this incredible plant offers. He found out that despite the overproduction of nopal Opuntia and the abundance of land suitable for growing nopal Opuntia, most of the Mexican families dedicated to the cultivation of this incredible plant lived in poverty.

Only a small percentage of the nopal Opuntia production is processed in Mexico to obtain value-added products, and the quantities exported to other countries are very low. Martín discovered that more than 160,000 tons of nopal Opuntia are wasted each year due to the lack of resources to transform this superfood into value-added products and the lack of strategies to commercialize nopal Opuntia products internationally.

Martin is convinced that nopal Opuntia crops are a strategic solution to mitigate the effects of climate change worldwide. He discovered that nopal Opuntia crops help accelerate the decarbonization of our planet while securing nutritious food products, livestock feed, bioenergy, carbon offset credits and rewarding jobs for people in arid and semi-arid regions of our planet that suffer from water scarcity and desertification.

Based on his discoveries and after finishing his entrepreneurship studies in Montreal, Martin decided to create a company to promote the global cultivation and consuption of the nopal Opuntia plant native to Mexico.

Nopal Nutrition Inc.

In 2019, Martin Becerra Sandoval founded Nopal Nutrition, a socially responsible company based in Canada and Mexico, with the mission of promoting the cultivation and consumption of the nopal Opuntia plant from Mexico worldwide. To help mitigate climate change and improve the living conditions of people in arid and semi-arid regions of our planet that suffer from water scarcity and desertification.

In 2020, the founder spent time in Mexico to start setting up our research and development center focused on developing nopal Opuntia products for the global market. He also established a strategic network of associates and collaborators, including nopal Opuntia growers, agronomists, agricultural research centers, environmental organizations, livestock farmers, real estate agents, export advisers, transportation and logistics companies, and manufacturers of nopal Opuntia products.

New product development & innovation

Martin Becerra Sandoval is convinced that the Opuntia ficus-indica is one of the most beneficial plants available in nature and that developing innovative products from this amazing plant is essential to making it available all around the world.

Nopal Nutrition’s R&D Centre | Mexico

In 2020, the founder established the first Research and Development centre in the world, dedicated to creating innovative products from the nopal Opuntia plant and its fruits for the global market.