Group posts double-digit sales growth for 2023/24 and anticipates accelerated growth in the upcoming campaign
Spain’s Agroponiente Group posted record sales of €325m in 2023/24, an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year.
CEO Imanol Almudí said the results had exceeded the company’s forecasts, and that the expectations are that growth will continue to accelerate to 15-20 per cent for the 2024/25 campaign.
“The challenge now is to continue growing sustainably, offering a good service to our farmers and customers, with the aim of becoming the benchmark in Southern Europe for the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables,” Almudí said.
Volume-wise, tomatoes were the star product, with 75,000 tonnes sold in 2023/24. They were followed by courgettes (62,000 tonnes), peppers (56,000 tonnes), watermelons (50,000 tonnes), cucumbers (48,000 tonnes), aubergines (22,000 tonnes), melons (7,000 tonnes) and beans (3,000 tonnes).
For the upcoming campaign, Agroponiente has increased its greenhouse production area by 50 per cent, boosted its supply network by adding three new collection centres, and successfully launched a project to reopen the former facilities of AgrupaAdra, adding a new auction and packhouse in the town of Adra in Almería.
In addition to the record results, the company said it had achieved other notable milestones during the past year.
“2023/24 has been the definitive campaign in the implementation of our philosophy of ‘conscious agriculture’, which embodies a production, marketing and organisation model based on coexistence with the environment and the surroundings,” it said.
“This has led to significant reductions in water and energy consumption and in our carbon footprint, laying the foundations for making Agroponiente the first company in the sector to obtain B-Corp certification.”
Almudí commented: “We are very clear that we can be a profitable, efficient and continuously growing company, respecting our environment as much as possible and applying and implementing policies to reduce consumption in every sense, aimed at maximum efficiency.
“Our ‘conscious agriculture’ is aimed at being a hallmark of the sector and we have started by making it preside over all the actions and departments of the company, which is a huge satisfaction for us.”
