The agricultural battle in a cooperative: personal merchandise and alliances with massive shops | Economy | EUROtoday

Xavier Pie factors out some massive metallic vats the place the should rests, which will probably be used primarily by massive producers to make cava. “In there are all the Xs with which we start each harvest.” He talks in regards to the unknowns with which the farmers of the Vila-rodona Cooperative (Tarragona) begin every season and make their lives distressing. The evolution of the costs of the diesel that drives the tractor, these of the fertilizers that invigorate the crops, the affect of pests, whether or not water will find yourself falling from the sky… all the things that finally ends up figuring out the ultimate product. “We solve all these questions and give it almost done to the cava producers, but all that risk is our responsibility,” says the farmer, agronomist and member of the society's governing council. The final The final ones, nonetheless alive.

With the identical symbolic load because the castells, cooperatives had been born as a collective effort to struggle in opposition to the private adversities of the agricultural world. Collaboration allowed them to cut back manufacturing prices and the amount gave them extra energy to assist costs. In the case of Vila-rodona, its origin dates again to 1917, though little stays of these occasions, simply the construction of modernist strains that shelter these tubs stuffed with uncertainty. The wine weight has been consuming up what different merchandise equivalent to nuts or olive oil and even wheat or barley had in different occasions (these final two disappeared from the catalog definitively as a result of lack of competitiveness) and in the present day it already occupies round greater than 70% of the 9 million euros that the establishment invoices.

The difficulties that agriculture goes by means of are properly understood when Pie makes a remark: the monumental vineyard would be the image of the entity, however the fact is that the enterprise that provides probably the most profitability to the cooperative is the gasoline station for the members it operates. proper in entrance of the headquarters. And the advisory space has develop into the primary assist for the members, the area the place they’ll take away the bureaucratic chestnuts from the fireplace that, he assures, drown the farmer. “It's one of the attractions, because I'm not going to do anything other than what they tell me, it's very difficult to follow what they ask of you,” laments Pie, saturated by the buildup of guidelines. And he warns of the chance of digitalization: “What we want is to be able to go to the county council and be able to talk to someone.”

“One morning they wake up and tell you that you have to reduce 50% of phytosanitary products,” he laments with a smile that’s not fairly a smile, “but it's funny because they don't take into account that to cover the extra cost perhaps they should also tell them to the school cafeteria service to raise the price they pay for fruit or vegetables.” Pie, just like the group of farmers who’ve demonstrated these weeks in Europe, sees their battle, that of getting a good value, as very unequal, and asks for social consciousness: “I tell my daughter, you will never have as much power as when “You drag the shopping cart, you have the freedom to decide what you buy.” He is of the opinion that farmers and huge distribution chains ought to “be allies”, as a result of there isn’t a different means out: “In Catalonia, for example, we cannot give up that 25% of the market that Mercadona controls.” But there’s nonetheless a giant boundary between each events which is known as the intermediation value.

Shorten the worth chain

One of the options that the cooperative has sought is to shorten the variety of actors collaborating within the worth chain as a lot as potential. It's a little bit of going again to the origins. For this cause, they’re making an attempt to advertise a model of wine and cava launched in 2006, Castell d'Or, to profit from their manufacturing. The goal is to make sure that at the very least half of that is used to make its personal model bottlings. But the street is gradual and the competitors is robust. “If you don't go deeper into the value chain it is very difficult to enter the market,” he says. From his phrases it’s understood that wine is essential, however extra related would be the skill to generate a model and perform promoting campaigns. Although first they must make the required investments to extend capability and that could be a long-term path, particularly as a result of the cava should mature for at least 9 months earlier than being placed on sale. “Sparkling wine is the category that is growing the most and that is where there are more guarantees,” says Pie.

But time is brief. The variety of companions has been diminished. Of the thousand who proceed to pay the price, barely half proceed to be producers. Concentration has reached the countryside and there are fewer farmers with extra farmland, which suggests that there’s a larger capability to realize economies of scale and obtain earnings, but additionally larger dangers within the occasion that issues go incorrect. Many kids of the countryside have determined to not proceed the household saga. “The number of cooperative members is decreasing and we have historical members with an activity that has almost disappeared. Maybe we would have to get people not linked to the field to come in and break up an activity that is now very patrimonialized,” he says. And he assumes there are such a lot of unresolved X's each inside and out of doors these vats of wort.

Follow all the knowledge Economy y Business in Facebook y Xor in our e-newsletter semanal

_