Leading Spanish cooperative Unica Group, along with fellow Spanish companies Agromark and Frutas ElDulze has signed a deal with US food group General Mills to market products under its ‘Green Giant’ brand.
The marketing agreement has been signed through UP Fresh, a newly-established company in which the three Spanish firms are equal-part shareholders, which hopes to achieve a 5 per cent of the European market within the next four years.
Under the terms of the deal with General Mills – the world’s sixth largest food company – UP Fresh’s members will market a range of products, grown in Spain’s Almeria and Murcia regions, under the Green Giant name principally in Spain, the UK, France and Germany.
Among the products set to feature under the brand are courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, lettuce, celery, radish, broccoli and cauliflower.
The branded products will be debuted in the Spanish market before an expected expansion across the rest of Europe through major grocery retailers.
In a statement, Unica said products marketed under the agreement would be “of the highest quality”, produced “using the most stringent food safety standards in Europe”.
In a statement, Unica’s managing director, Enrique de los Ríos, said: “The objective that we are looking to achieve is that when a person wants to buy fruit and vegetables, they don’t have to cope with the uncertainty of not knowing whether the products are going to be good or not for their children.”
