“The automatic line has only been up and running in the centre for a month and we are still learning, but we must become committed to technology,” Alex Creixell, Manager of Giropoma-Costa Brava, explains.
In addition, the company’s expansion plan includes building new storage rooms with space for around 6 million kilos of apples.
The company’s executive affirms that, “although there will not be too much production in Europe, at Giropoma, we have the same volume as last year, around 28 or 29 million kilos, and we will even see an increase in Pink Lady, harvesting around seven million kilos.”
The company has shown a very strong commitment to club varieties and, in addition to Pink Lady, it also has Joya and Candine. The latter is one of the important variety investments. It is an apple that is very similar to the Fuji, but without this variety’s agronomical problems. “Club apples mean a differentiation over others and, in general, they have a brand identity thanks to marketing actions,” the executive explains.
The Costa Brava area, as with the rest of the region, is suffering from an important drought and, for this reason, at Giropoma they have done their homework as 95% of its plantations are fitted with drip irrigation and, at the centre, the water recovery mechanism fitted in the calibrator allows around 5,000 litres to be recovered. “In 2008 we suffered from a drought and now it seems the situation could occur more frequently; therefore, we must be better prepared, particularly in an area with as much tourism as this one, where obviously we could have desalination plants, although as yet these do not exist.”
Regarding the development of the campaign, he believes that “the issue with costs has now stabilised and we know where we are, but the problems with labour continue to exist.”
When referring to the drop in consumption recorded in all fruit and vegetables, and of course, in apples, Creixell indicates that “in market terms, we are not worried because at no time will it be saturated, although the problems could arise regarding consumers’ spending power as when the prices goes past a certain point, buyers decant for cheaper products and even those that are not in our category.”
