Toñifruit teams up with Bio Lobrot to boost organic stonefruit offering

Murcian cooperative Toñifruit has formed a strategic alliance with another regional grower, Bio Lobrot, to manage the production, packing and sales of its range of organic stonefruit. The deal adds another 1,000 tonnes of organic stonefruit to Toñifruit’s organics portfolio, which also includes citrus, pomegranates and table grapes.

Calasparra-based Bio Lobrot produces a wide range of apricot, peach, nectarine, flat peach and plantain varieties between late April and July on its farms between Cieza and Calasparra and operates a sustainable packhouse powered by solar energy.

Toñifruit said the alliance will boost efficiency and save costs by combining capabilities, consolidating production volume and making more efficient use of resources. The cooperative’s two packhouses will remain operational, each specialising in different products.

Toñifruit recently invested €4mn in state-of-the-art sorting and packing technology that uses AI to sort fruit by colour and quality at its packhouse in Librilla. By joining forces with Bio Lobrot, it is now able to extend its season, maintaining stonefruit supplies until July.

Bio Lobrot’s farms are located at more than 350m above sea level, making it one of the highest-altitude stonefruit farms in Spain. Here, the sunny days and cool nights in spring and summer allow it to grow fruit with high sugar content and uniform quality to meet European demand.

Juan Antonio Martínez, director of Toñifruit, said the alliance, would “improve the company’s position as a leader in this segment”, while Antonio Lozano, manager of Bio Lobrot, said it emphasised his family’s commitment “to strengthening and promoting an agricultural model that the European Union has been working to promote for years and which is part of its future strategic plans”.

The agreement comes at a time when consumption of organic stonefruit in Europe is quite limited, with France and Germany being the markets with the highest demand, but far below the levels seen in other produce categories.

Around 12,000 tonnes of organic peaches and nectarines were sold in Germany in 2023. According to Martínez, “our intention is for our customers to be able to offer a larger volume of sustainable, organic fruit so that the product enjoys greater availability in all European markets”.