"Banks have more trust in agriculture, but restrictions on plant protection products could affect profitability"

In recent times, investment funds that had previously shown no interest in the sector have been buying up agricultural companies in the Spanish region of Murcia. Companies with promising prospects, some with a strong family culture, others with little investment in technology, seem to have become very attractive to foreign investors.

Producers and marketers of melons, stone fruit, table grapes, and citrus fruits have already made headlines for this reason. In the broccoli sector, Ricardo Guerrero Tirado, of the finance department of Hermanos Guerrero, is noticing how "banks are currently investing a lot more in agriculture than they used to. In the past, they only appeared interested in tourism and the industrial sector."

© Hermanos Guerrero

"It could be said that, in general, banks have more trust in agriculture than in previous years. Spain is a major tourist destination, but it's also the vegetable garden of Europe, and that is not just a figure of speech," says Guerrero.

"At the same time, however, subsidies for photovoltaic energy and fallow land are having some negative consequences for agriculture. While clean energy is desirable, entire plantations are being removed to install solar farms. In Jaén, many hectares of olive trees are being replaced by solar panels due to discouragement among producers, and this, combined with the difficulties in handing over the business to new generations, could have a huge impact on the number of producers," he says.

"In the winter season, we face remarkable competition from Italian broccoli (especially in the fall and spring). In summer, we grow in the highlands, and this allows us to offer around 3,000,000 kilos during the hottest period. At that time of year, we are unable to compete with countries such as the Netherlands or Poland, which are in full production and have favorable weather conditions; our costs would skyrocket if we didn't produce our own," says the manager.

"We decided to specialize 100% in broccoli and stopped producing cauliflower two years ago. Sometimes you have to take a big gamble. Last winter, we produced 13,000,000 kilos, and European countries like France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ukraine, or the United Kingdom are some of our most important destinations," says Guerrero.

"We work mostly with large wholesalers and supermarkets, and we only reduce our activity with them in summer," says Guerrero. As for the hailstorm recorded a few days ago, he stresses that "it did not cause any damage to our crops."

Broccoli is becoming more common in the Spanish diet. The industry is finding more uses for this vegetable, but the stalk is still often overlooked. "I've heard of a company that wanted to make rice grains, chips, and even pizza bases from broccoli, but people basically seek florets in bags, and the fact that the stalk is thrown away doesn't concern them," says Guerrero.

The +Brócoli association, says the financier, is "doing a good job, because in four or five years it has made more progress than had been made in the previous 30 years. It's worth recalling that in the United Kingdom, people consume five to six times more broccoli than in Spain. There is still a lot to be done."

Hermanos Guerrero is a family business founded by four brothers from Cordoba who arrived in Murcia more than 40 years ago. Seeing the great conditions for agriculture and a suitable climate, they set up the company in 1994, devoting themselves to broccoli cultivation from the outset. "We have around 150 people working for us, sometimes up to 200. We grow conventional produce; organic broccoli is not in our range because of the high costs and losses that are not offset by the market," says the manager.

Concerning restrictions on the use of plant protection products, Guerrero says that "these products are allowing plants to grow normally and produce the quantities demanded by the market. If restrictions continue to be imposed, and we also keep having problems in handing over the business to new generations, we will go from bad to worse, because there are increasingly more obstacles," says Guerrero, adding that "if they cut back on phytosanitary products and production is reduced, investment funds won't get attractive returns and the sector will gradually decline."

© Hermanos Guerrero