Coprohnijar – strong commitment to experimental research

Almeria’s benchmark cherry tomato company was founded in 1986 and today remains a pioneering cooperative in the research and development of integrated production cultivation techniques.

For the past decade, it has farmed 20 ha of its own tomato and watermelon plantations and 400 ha belonging to its members, located in Almeria in southern Spain.

Ten hectares of the firm’s own plantations are used for greenhouse cultivation, including a section dedicated to experimenting and testing both new varieties and the most cutting-edge innovative growing techniques.

“The commercial department’s job is to analyse which type of tomato we need for each client. Only then does the technical department select the varieties offered to us by all the seed manufacturers, testing them to see which is the best,” said Coprohnijar CEO Juan Segura.

He said the most successful item in the market at the moment is the cherry tomato, which saw an 8% increase between 2015 and 2016.

The company’s main export markets are the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, as well as other EU destinations.

Coprohnijar has its own customer portfolio, but Segura stressed it is open to taking on new clients and hopes to open up to other countries as well, for example Saudi Arabia.