Actel and Fruits de Ponent unveil at Fruit Logistica their agribusiness project aimed at joining forces and generating new opportunities for their partners

07/02/2024

The Fruits de Ponent Cooperative Group and Actel Group are working on establishing a new business venture with the aim of combining forces to generate opportunities in the face of threats currently impacting the sector. The presidencies and general managements of Fruits de Ponent and Actel have chosen the international setting of Fruit Logistica to inform the media about the nature of this alliance. This involves a shared company or Limited Liability Company (LLC) - it is not a merger - that will uniquely manage the business activities of both groups: stone and pome fruits, oil, almonds, energy, circular economy, and all services aimed at members.

The decision to explore this collaboration comes after a prolonged period of joint reflection between the two cooperatives, considering the external context marked by a high concentration of players in the agri-food value chain and significant changes in agricultural production due to climate emergency, particularly intensified in recent seasons and the rise in costs. These factors, along with the goal of promoting sustainable development of business activities, pose the challenge of offering members greater profitability in their operations through more efficient transformation and marketing of agricultural products, as well as jointly exploring larger scales to meet current high investment needs.

Moreover, this strategic alliance - which will need to be endorsed by the members in the coming weeks - aims to provide a comprehensive service to the entire social body and seek new business opportunities, especially in areas such as green energy, labor support in the field with staff for producer members, or expanding the catalog of Mediterranean diet products to achieve greater benefits.

The cooperative principles shared by both entities make this initiative deeply rooted in the territory and at the service of the entire community. Precisely, both presidencies have taken advantage of the setting of Fruit Logistica to call for other cooperatives in the area to join the project.

The timeline for the new company is to start operating as such after Easter, with the next summer campaign seeing both sales teams working in a coordinated manner, and gradually incorporating the rest of the businesses.

The main FIGURES

Annual turnover: 160 million euros

Volume of KGS of stone fruit and pome fruit: 100,000 tons

Volume of KGS of packaged oil: 900,000 KGS

Volume of KGS of bulk oil: 100,000 KGS

Volume of almonds: 12,000,000 KGS

Brands of the new company:

Fruit:

Actel

Fruits de Ponent

OKI

Ondine