The Trops cooperative, Spain's leading mango trader, has created 150 jobs with the opening of its new plant in Vélez-Málaga, which has come after a 16 million Euro investment and will make it possible to triple the sales volume in the future.
Trops' manager, Enrique Colilles, explained today in a statement that, during the current season, the cooperative's productive capacity has doubled thanks to the new facilities, which made it necessary to hire 150 people for warehouse, commercial and administration duties.
The new plant, which was inaugurated on 21 September by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Miguel Arias Cañete, has been built in the town centre of El Trapiche and is 14,200 square metres larger than the previous one.
The new industrial complex includes several facilities, including a processing plant for the elaboration of avocado and mango derivatives, a warehouse to store fertilizers and supplies, a store selling agricultural products, a service station, a community centre and a nursery.
The plant was designed with several technological innovations, allowing Trops to give value added to these products, which will bring better flavour and quality for final consumers and higher profits for growers.
The technology used includes electronics imported from New Zealand, IT developed in Almeria and internal logistics engineering developments from Valencia, which are a world's first.
The Trops cooperative, founded in 1979, is one of Spain's main traders of subtropical fruit, concentrating the production of around 1,800 growers, mainly from La Axarquía and Granada's Costa Tropical, although partners can be found anywhere from the Portuguese Algarve to the Spanish province of Alicante.
The firm controls 60% of the mangoes produced in the country and 30% of the national production of avocados, with a turnover of 35 million Euro last year and exports reaching 22 countries.
Source: Finanzas.com