The latest investments Trecoop has made at its specialist facility in Sudanell, in Catalonia, and its Smart Fresh technology for cold chain optimisation are the main new features that this second-tier Lleida cooperative will be promoting at this edition of Fruit Logistica.
The refrigeration technology – based on the rapid transfer into cold storage of the fruit coming in from the fields so that it is prepared in perfect conditions – allows Trecoop to optimise the cold chain. It is backed up by the dynamic atmosphere chambers for long-term preservation installed by the cooperative at its Montoliu packaging facility, specialising in pears. Despite the bad weather that undermined this year’s harvest by more than 30%, Trecoop considers distant markets such as Brazil consolidated and is now putting together strategies to reach South Africa and the Middle East in the coming campaign.
The cooperative, the product of a merger of the co-ops from Montoliu de Lleida and Sudanell, has doubled its daily production capacity to almost 500 tons after remodelling its packaging centres. The growth in hectares, along with new irrigation works in the area, has helped Trecoop, which has 100 members, go from just over 1,000 ha to 1,500 ha in the last five years.
This progress prompted a restructure of its the work centres, with a view to specialising in the company’s two flagship products: pears, in Montoliu, and both round and flat stone fruit in Sudanell. With one of the largest commercial catalogues of pears (15,000 tons), the main varieties in production include the Conference, Alejandrina, Williams and Limonera.
Trecoop also produces 15,000 tons of stone fruit each season, mainly peaches, nectarines, paraguayos and flat nectarines.
