CASI tomatoes

One of Spain’s largest tomato exporters, Cooperativa Agrícola San Isídro (CASI), has revealed its ambitions to expand outside its traditional European markets to North America, Russia and even China and India over the coming months.

At its annual general assembly, held on 17 March in the south-eastern province of Almeria, the cooperative outlined plans to explore export possibilities to the fast-growing Asian economies during 2012, while also examining opportunities to sell its tomatoes to the US and Canada.

This follows on from trial shipments to Germany, the UK and Russia, which CASI said had so far proved successful.

However, speaking to regional daily El Diario de Almeria, the cooperative’s president, José María Andújar, said that although CASI had the North American markets “in mind”, both markets were “subject to airfreight prices”.