Agrícola Navarro de Haro has a programme with 800 hectares of watermelons to supply the markets from April to October. Its daily work is based on its commitment to quality.
With 30 years in the watermelon segment, the family-run company holds a high specialisation that has led it become a reference point on the national market, where it operates mainly with the Mercas (wholesale fresh produce markets); and on the international market, supplying virtually all large European supermarket chains (Edeka, Rewe, Lidl…), as well as sending smaller volumes to Dubai.
The company’s policy changed several years ago, committing itself to large volumes and at the same time, to top quality, aimed at becoming more competitive on the market. Currently, they have a programme of 800 hectares of watermelons including both the company’s own production and that of its farmer associates, which covers from the 15th of April to the end of October in different cultivation areas. The earliest start in El Ejido, followed by Níjar, Palomares, Huércal-Overa, Ciudad Real and Baza.
To optimise management, they plan the campaign way in advance (for example, before starting the 2017 fruit harvest, they were already programming the work for 2018). And to homogenise the quality (not an easy task taking into account the very different volumes and sources), they always choose the same variety in each class: Fashion F1 by Nunhems, for seedless black watermelons and Boston F1 (also by Nunhems) with Premium pollinators (mini) for white watermelons. A choice made due to the great quality that these varieties offer. “Fashion has marked a trend in the sector and has made other companies raise their standards. Now, anyone who does not produce good quality fruit does not sell”. The company’s manager, José Alonso Navarro Flores guarantees.
During this campaign they forecast reaching 50 million kilos of watermelons, 20 of them marketed under the Fashion Watermelon brand name. This Premium line makes up 30% of its total volume. Furthermore, white watermelons corner 50% of its production and the mini with micro-seeds, 20%. Both are marketed with the brand names Nadeha and Sansy in different lines and with a wide range of packaging, with cardboard formats for mini watermelons being studied for introduction in the near future.
Amongst its new features, the following stand out: the renewal of their corporate image and their new website, with a modern design that streamlines the previous logo without losing any of its most relevant signs of identity: the sun, the earth, the sea… and in this way they intend to strengthen their entrepreneurial, international zeal.
