Cooperative La Palma continues its firm strategy of contributing by reducing everything that is not essential for quality and sustainable agriculture.
This spirit is what has led the cooperative to grow and position itself as a benchmark in the sector, being named the best Spanish Cooperative 2021 at the 6th edition of the Spanish Agri-Food Cooperative Awards, the most important award in the Spanish cooperative sector.
Its innovative, professional, empathetic and sustainable agriculture adapts to global challenges with the premise of excellence, giving magnificent results. These are challenges that speak loudly and clearly about sustainability, healthy consumption, ready-to-eat food quality and consumer experience. And dealing with them is only possible with ambitious Sustainability, Digitalisation and CSR plans, like those of Cooperative La Palma.
This cooperative is now the 4th largest tomato growing company in Spain and the 27th largest fruit and vegetable company nationally. It is the fruit of the effort and perseverance of its more than 700 growers, 1,200 workers and the 4,000 families linked to it. Since its creation almost 50 years ago, this Andalusian cooperative has sought excellence as a long-term objective. Always working with respectful use of the magnificent natural resources of its land, with constant training, a culture of hard work and innovation as its flagship.
These are the challenges and innovations that the professionals from Cooperative La Palma will be sharing with the sector at the next edition of the International Fruit and Vegetable Fair, Fruit Attraction Madrid, from 5th to 7th October.
Everything points to the fact that, driven by the spirit of “Less is More” and its concern to innovate, this cooperative will continue to explore and satisfy the new consumer demands: less food of animal origin, less additives, more awareness and responsibility for a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle.
In this sense, Cooperative La Palma guarantees a magnificent selection of top quality vegetables, being leaders in the Mini-Vegetable range with a wide variety of speciality tomato, snack cucumber and mini-pepper products. In addition, there is their Subtropical line: cherimoya, avocado, mango and pitaya. This is a line that La Palma Granada has been investing in heavily, especially over the last three years, and within its operational programme it has earmarked a significant investment in R&D as well as in professionals and resources for improvement – specifically in levelling and adapting land, in seedlings and integral automatic irrigation systems with optimisation of water resources. A technical team dedicated exclusively to the development of subtropical crops focuses its efforts on increasing their production in number and variety sustainably, maintaining their high quality standard. This commitment has also led the cooperative to extend its range and to launch pitaya, an exotic low-calorie fruit with beneficial health properties, which has had a magnificent reception on the market.
Furthermore, every year the cooperative anticipates new market trends with the launch of high quality brands with personality such as Amela®, a tomato that has revolutionised the market, and Adora®, an excellent brown ribbed tomato that has received outstanding awards from the sector and has positioned itself as market leader in its category.
Cherrymole is its latest venture. Far from what we are used to, Cooperative La Palma is venturing into the Fifth Range segment with its latest launch: an innovative Gazpacho and Salmorejo based on mini-vegetables and a delicious Vegetable Cream made from Adora tomato.
These 100% natural products are the result of a demanding production process using top quality vegetables grown by La Palma. The spearhead of their commitment to R&D, these products are made without additives and with a strict method that keeps the organoleptic properties of the freshly picked vegetables intact, satisfying consumers who are most concerned about their health, the origin and the method of preparation of the product. This specialisation makes it possible to consume optimum fruit and vegetables all year round, overcoming the seasonal nature of the campaigns, in formats of different sizes, 100% recyclable and sustainable.
It is already clear that the market is demanding sustainable, quality vegan alternatives. And Cooperative La Palma has already begun to take the first steps to satisfy this demand with its own top quality products in original flavours and formats. Fruit Attraction will be a magnificent meeting point for the visiting professionals from Cooperative La Palma to tell us more about their innovations in vegetables and in the processed segment.
“We owe everything to nature. That is why we are promoting Less is More Agriculture, in which we bring together people, effort, quality, technology and sustainability, reducing everything unnecessary in order to cultivate with greater excellence and respect”, explains Pedro Ruiz, president of Cooperative La Palma.
This is a clear, resounding and deeply motivating challenge for our agriculture, which Cooperative La Palma is leading with determination.
