Major Spanish tomato group Cooperativa Agrícola San Isidro (Casi) has achieved a record result for its 2009/10 campaign, registering a turnover topping €200m in spite of the “catastrophic” prices received at the start of the season.
The Almería-based company, which draws its production from some 1,900 member-growers, closed the recent campaign with volumes totalling 230,000 tonnes and the highest turnover in its 66 years of existence.
Casi’s achievement comes in spite of a 12 months that saw growers in southern Spain faced with poor prices, escalating production costs, as well as heavy rains and flooding that affected much of Andalusia earlier this year.
The cooperative’s president, José María Andújar, told regional daily Diario de Almería that a number of production zones had been “greatly affected” by the cold, wet weather during early 2010, which had increased the costs of production.
However, good results were achieved, he said, in later production areas, resulting in “a year worthy of mention, with on average a higher level of prices compared with other campaigns, from Christmas onwards”.
Casi, which currently has more than 2,000ha of tomatoes, has already begun planning for the 2011 campaign, which enters peak production between January and June.
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