Brothers Álvaro and Antonio Muñoz manage a conglomerate of companies from Murcia - under the umbrella of the AMC Group - that has a global turnover of around $1.3 billion with the sale of fruits, flowers and vegetable preparations at home and all over the world. They research and patent plants which they license to other farmers. Some of them are grown on their 3,250 hectares. The men are the sons of the industrialist Antonio Muñoz Armero. He was one of the first exporters to the countries of the Iron Curtain in the middle of Franco’s dictatorship.
But it is difficult to follow their trail in the Mercantile Registry and to make verifications since they have more than a hundred companies. In plus, they do not present consolidated accounts.
They research and patent plants which they license to other farmers. Some of them are grown on their 3,250 hectares. Up to 400 producers in 16 countries pay to grow AMC-owned varieties on another 25,000 hectares, from The United States to South Africa and to Israel.
Their citrus fruits, grapes, persimmons or pomegranates are planted in both hemispheres. That is to try to maintain a stable supply to supermarkets. The workforce of 2,400 turns into 5,700 during peak production.
The group is divided into two. The branch of juices and vegetable preparations directed by Antonio (AMC Natural Drinks), and that of fresh products, by Álvaro (AMC Fresh).
“Every business has its own reason to be. My share of fresh produce is around $1 billion in turnover. We are growing between 6% and 7% and the figure is going to rise by 21% this year, but we don’t like to give absolute figures”, explains Álvaro.
Nor does it offer net profit or debt data, but its innovation center in Cabezo de Torres (Murcia) shows the root of the vigorous growth: in table grapes, they have been investing for 20 years in a biological archive of varieties that only since 2012 has begun to make a profit.
