Agroaldea
THE COAGRISÁN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE, IT WAS ON THE DOOR OF EXCEEDING THE FOUR MILLION PACKAGES EXPORTED.
If it had not been for the crisis generated in the EU by the bacteria E. Coli and the alleged culprits Spanish cucumbers, COAGRISÁN would have broken a new record. The exported packages could have reached four and a half million.
This would have translated into a performance of 22 kilograms per square meter, a figure unimaginable just a few years ago. In fact, COAGRISÁN, today, It is the only tomato export company in the Canary Islands that achieves these ratios. This campaign exported 3.984.000 packages to Europe. Or what is the same 23.904.000 million kilos.
On the occasion of the end of the campaign 2010/11 and the beginning of the next, Agroaldea had the opportunity to interview the general director of COAGRISÁN, Jacinto Godoy, and this is the summary of the extensive interview.
How do you rate the campaign that has just concluded??
In general terms quite good until April. The final months: "normal". Those who have not gained kilos are those who have lost a little. Summing up: worse than I expected and better than what the end predicted.
Reduces the surface, but production increases. How do you explain?.
It's called professionalization. The producer who manages to obtain 17kg/m2 and tend towards 20kg/m2 will be on the right track. He who does not arrive will end up disappearing. This year we have surpassed 30.000 baskets the production of the previous campaign, despite having six fewer hectares. If last year the average yield was 17.5Kg/m2, This campaign we have reached 18.5Kg/m2, not counting the half a million baskets thrown away in the last two months. If I hadn't thrown those baskets, we would have reached 22Kg/m2.
The quality of the fruit from this campaign has set the tone.
It has been excellent. The maximum until the end of the harvest. And it is precisely that quality that we produce that is responsible for the fact that we do not have sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand of our customers.. We need a million more packages to provide customer requests. We have more clients than fruit. If La Aldea produced this amount, would be sold which would translate into jobs, dynamization of the complementary economy…
What do COAGRISÁN customers value and what makes them continue to add buyers??
The quality, the seriousness and uniformity of the service and the product, in compliance and delivery times. It's wrong for me to say it, but in the markets COAGRISÁN is taken as a reference, especially the competition. And that means we're doing it right.
Export finished, The seedbeds started and they are already grafting. Does the cycle no longer stop??
We stop exporting the 16 June, the day 20 In June we start the seedbeds and at the beginning of July we start grafting. To make them we have employed a hundred people, being the only export company in the municipality that generates employment at the moment. This harvest we intend to advance the planting ten days, so we hope to plant starting next 25 of July. This is because the longer the export time, the more kilos are taken., which allows us to get closer to the amounts that clients demand from us.
The uncertainty of the evolution of Tuta, did it condition the production?
Today we can affirm that the tuta is almost an anecdote, one more plague that we add to coexistence. And what I say is the result of putting into practice the necessary corrections and improvements, cultural tasks and tasks, adaptation of structures, the biological fight. The whole has led us to achieve balance, which confirms that we have acted in the correct line.
Will the surface area increase in the next campaign?
We estimate the increase to be five percent, that the young cooperative farmers put into operation. We would like it to be a third, the surface that would produce what customers demand from us, but in times of crisis it seems that it is not the bet of the unemployed. However, We are still committed to increasing and we will continue trying.
After the E crisis. Coli, How are expectations presented??
After this fateful incident, We trust that appropriate measures will be taken so that unjustified alarms are not possible.. But if this crisis has shown something, it is that in Spain we do things much better than in other community countries.; we comply with the rules the controls, traceability…. As for the competition? Continue doing things well and produce the biggest and best and continue demanding 100% transportation aid..
COAGRISÁN has established a strategy to remain competitive. Here the mechanization of crops stands out.
Our goal is to achieve the greatest efficiency. For this we have to achieve greater production, at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing quality. If we close the circle we can affirm that we are efficient. And here the incorporation of tractors and devices to apply treatments have come to play a very important role.: work quality, application of more effective treatments with a smaller amount of product, greater labor performance and lower requirement... It is the line. For the next campaign, 2012/13, irrigation will be completely automated and wiring will disappear. Irrigation machines will receive the information using Wi-Fi technology, from the stations that will be powered by photovoltaic panels. We continue to bet on the avant-garde and, today, We can proudly claim to have turned fifty years old and be the vanguard, the spearhead of the sector in the Canary Islands.