Source: Naples Daily News
A La Tagua collectible sculpted into the shape of a cactusBONITA SPRINGS — Ken and Mako Friedenberg have been in the Naples area for only a few months, but already the husband and wife team have found a following.
Customers are drawn to their jewelry, watches, coat racks, accessories, home décor, collectible figurines and other products because they like the designs. Other customers have become regulars because the Friedenbergs’ product is earth-friendly, animal-friendly and sustainable non-petroleum.
Their company is called La Tagua (pronounced “la tog-wa”). It comes to Southwest Florida by way of the Amazon rainforest. While many products from the Amazon previously have come under fire for being destructive, La Tagua has the opposite effect, they say.
“Our product falls off the tagua trees (in the Amazon) naturally, so there is no damage to the natural resources in harvesting the nuts of the seeds, which are the size of hen eggs,” said Ken Friedenberg, who with his wife, Mako, recently relocated to the Collier area from Hawaii. “The raw materials we use are from the rainforest and we wanted to be closer to our natural resources, which made Southwest Florida a desirable place for us to live.”
A full-grown tagua tree can grow to 65 feet and yield enormous, knobby wooden fruits. When cracked open, the fruit reveals several hen-egg sized tagua nuts, which are seeds of the tree. Tagua seeds can grow into seedlings or be carved into vegetable ivory products.
In the small South American communities where they grow, tagua provides a valuable economic and cultural service for indigenous people, allowing them to exist in their traditional lifestyles.
In addition to jewelry and household collectibles, the Friedenbergs make chess pieces and board game pieces, as well as door knobs, key chains and a myriad of other products including the world’s first organic watch made from the tagua material.
The company also makes tagua buttons; some brand-name shirts use tagua buttons. Many of these items have been made of ivory, which isn’t environmentally suitable. La Tagua products closely resemble ivory, but are far less expensive than ivory and don’t affect the environment negatively. The elephant, for example, is an animal often killed for its ivory.
All of the La Tagua products are originally white, like ivory, but the Friedenbergs can create almost an entire color palate of cooked-in colors that are ecologically safe.
“La Tagua is often referred to as vegetable ivory, but I like to call it Amazon palm ivory,” Ken Friedenberg said. “It’s very malleable, hard like ivory and has the appearance of ivory, and I like to tell people it’s like organic titanium, that’s how strong and light it is.”
Tagua vegetable ivory is virtually indistinguishable from animal-based ivory. Environmentalists, who often don’t like to use petroleum-based products (plastic) or anything made from ivory, are some of the Friedenbergs’ best customers.
“It’s great to support tagua plantations in the hope that vegetable ivory can totally replace elephant ivory, because elephants have been dangerously over-hunted and tagua thrives through much of South America,” Ken Friedenberg said. “Tagua is also considered a renewable resource in that the trees need not be killed in order to access the palm ivory, which helps save the incredibly rare and diverse rainforest environment, provides a valuable resource-based income for the South American people” and other benefits.
The Friedenbergs currently have a storefront at Flamingo Island Flea Market in Bonita Springs and expect to return there later in January. Aside from their retail business, the Friedenbergs hope to be able to develop the Collier and Lee county markets to create more manufacturing locally. They believe their presence will increase employment.
“We’re very interested in training people how to make our product, how to tie the knots and implement our style – everything is hand-made and it’s a natural material, so there are specific ways to create the designs,” Mako Friedenberg said. “It’s not as easy to do as it looks, but our workers enjoy working with these natural products and we have entire families who work for us.”
One of Mako Friedenberg’s goals is to help provide a place to work for families in the region.
“I started doing this in Japan and it became a cultural thing – we even have offered housing to some of our employees so they can learn the craft and work from home,” Mako Friedenberg said. “And if the volume is justified we can also create private labeling for retailers, which is another way we plan to contribute to the business climate in Naples and the surroundings areas.”
The Friedenbergs have adapted the phrase — “Because one tree saved breathes life into our children’s future” — to illustrate the purpose behind their products.
“It’s all about investing in our children’s future – because 20 percent of the earth’s oxygen comes from the Amazon and La Tagua helps protect and preserve the animals, the Amazon and our environment – when you invest in a purchase of La Tagua, you invest in your future,” Mako Friedenberg said.
