This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at La cadena de distribución en el sector de Frutas y Hortalizas en España

Operators of the channel of distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables

The chain of distribution in the sector of fruits and vegetables in Spain

Source: Foundation Cajamar08/10/2010

In the world of food, in general, and in fruit and fresh vegetables in particular, the distribution chains are relatively complex and manifold. This reality becomes a structure of highly fragmented primary production, the perishable nature of most of the products, the legislation and the history of the sector.

Producers

They are usually grouped together in a cooperative society or agrarian society of transformation (SAT). The difference between the two lies in the following aspects:

(a) first degree cooperatives serve essentially two functions:

• Manage centrally the purchase of inputs.

• Market the harvest of its partners, either in its natural state or after submission to a defendant.

(b) the SAT are intermediate entities between cooperatives and commercial companies. Its object, as well as first degree cooperatives, is the production, processing and marketing of products obtained by their members, as well as the provision of services and provision of agricultural inputs to them, although the distribution of benefits is based on the equity of each partner.

Another way of Association is through the producer organisations of fruit and vegetables (OPFH), created by the Community acquis. To this end, these are defined as associative entities that gather others with legal personality (cooperative, agrarian transformation society or company).

Chain of distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The OPFH main objectives are the following:

(a) planning the production.

(b) return on production costs.

(d) add commercial value to the products.

It is also common to two or more production cooperatives are grouped into a single, giving rise to a cooperative of second grade. The aim of this is to integrate and strengthen the economic activity of the partners, to serve as main work the performance of the business functions.

On the other hand, should specify that there are farmers who sell directly to chains or intermediaries, and others many through 'auctions' (alhóndigas), to which van buyers acting on its own behalf or on behalf of chains and intermediaries.

From the data provided in table 1, it notes that you among major manufacturers of citrus fruits, fruit and vegetables which operate in Spain, some of them attend a corporate structure of cooperative or SAT. Such are the cases of Anecoop, cooperative agrarian and livestock San Isidro (CASI), cooperative banana in the Canary Islands (Coplaca) or SAT Agroiris.

• Anecoop. It is a cooperative of second grade that concentrates the production of other 87 cooperatives. At the same time, it is integrated in the Anecoop group that form seven European subsidiaries and other affiliated companies. The marketed products (citrus fruit, fruit and vegetables) are mainly cooperatives associated, distributed in 11 provinces, and the production of a farm located in the Sevillian town of Villamanrique de la Condesa. In it are harvested, among other crops, plums, extra early mandarines, peaches and nectarines. There is also a management unit, called Group business Anecoop, comprising sixteen cooperatives of associated total being the purpose of minimising costs and take advantage of economies of scale. This operating system is to centrally manage billing, orders, and purchase of materials.

• Cooperative agrarian and livestock San Isidro (CASI). It combines the production of vegetables of about 1,450 farmers Almeria Levant and its capital partners. Although his specialty is the tomato in different varieties, is also producing aubergines, courgettes, beans, melons, cucumbers, peppers and watermelons.

• Coplaca. It is a cooperative of the second degree and the largest organization of banana producers of the European Union, with its production of more than 130 million kilograms per year. In addition, their partners grouped in twenty institutions (cooperatives or SAT) produce other fruits, citrus fruits and vegetables.

In this ranking, there are also companies, such as AMC group food fresh and juice, e. Martinavarro, group Primaflor, and G's holding company Spain.

• AMC group food fresh and juice. It specialises in the production and export of citrus and fruits of summer (mainly, cherry, peach, nectarines and grapes). The subsidiaries that make up the group are: Agri-commerce, AMC Iberia, AMC Direct, UK MM, MM USA and Canada MM (these latter two operate to the North American market).

• E. Martinavarro. It produces and makes oranges in the Valencian towns of Almassora, Sollana and Xeraco. The company is a group with Agrimarba (acquisition of agricultural land for exploitation) and MMG Citrus (citrus fruits for the United Kingdom merchant). In addition to the own production, it is supplied of citrus fruits from the southern hemisphere countries.

• Group Primaflor. It brings together various companies producing citrus fruit, fruit and vegetables, being SAT Primaflor responsible for handling and marketing production.

• G's Holding Spain. It is composed of several companies producing citrus fruit and vegetables, corresponding to Pascual Marketing, the marketing of products. Owner society is the UK matrix G's Marketing Ltd., which owns a majority stake.

Table 1: Ranking of the fifteen largest companies producing citrus fruit, fruit and vegetables in Spain (2008).

On the other hand, it should be noted that some producers are present in the segment of fruits and vegetables from fourth range, which is emerging as an attractive business for the food industry before the existence of new patterns of consumption.

• Agri-food Bonnysa. The products of fourth range produced are coconut, granada peeled and grated natural tomato.

• Group Primaflor. The fourth range offer focuses on a wide variety of vegetables of leaf and stem, along with others such as garlic and carrot, offered in format monoproducto or mixture. In 2008, he began to market the series gold line consisting of four types of salads, of which three of them and, individually, contain cheese, Turkey or chicken.

Fruit and vegetable plants

They carry out the functions of selection, packaging and marketing of the product. As most outstanding examples of fruit and vegetable plants must include the following:

• AgrupaEjido. It markets the vegetable production of the OPFH SAT Agrupaejido and of individual producers. It has facilities in several municipalities in Almeria - Adra, Níjar, El Ejido, Roquetas de Mar and La Mojonera-, finding the activity of manipulated in this last.

• Garcia Aranda. Their income is derived from the supply to the Lidl supermarket chain and the Distributor Juan García Lax and sons, GMBH. The product range encompasses citrus, fruit and vegetables.

• Hortofrutícola Costa de Almería. The sale of vegetables is done via auction downward, which has two centres located in Roquetas de Mar and vicar. In addition, has three stores of manipulated also located in the province of Almeria, of which one of them shares facilities with the intended auction of Roquetas de Mar.

Purchase power

It's operators that have economic resources and legal personality whose purpose is to supply of certain products for distribution to the parent company to which they belong or to third-party companies (partners, independent or affiliated). A particularity of these operators lies in the fact that are not envasadores, as opposed to the fruit and vegetable plants.

As emblematic of this model is Socomo (society for modern shopping), which was created in 1987 by Carrefour for supply to the centres of the group in Spain. In addition, manage purchases of fruit and vegetables for Belgium, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

• coop trading. It is owned 25% by Coop Danmark, Coop Norge, Coop Sverige and Sok Nordic cooperative groups.

• Edeka Fruchtkontor Spain. It centralizes the shopping in Spain of fruit and vegetables for the German supermarket Edeka chain.

• iberiana frucht. It belongs to the Markant group, which is a German purchase consisting of more than 100 partners in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Italy and Czech Republic dedicated to the distribution with food-based.

• Tengelmann fruit Spain. It brings together the purchases of fruit and vegetables for the German group Tengelmann, owner of the Kaiser's Tengelmann and Plus supermarket chains.

• Zenalco. It is the company responsible for supply to the Auchan group of fruit and vegetables, being the subsidiary companies of distribution with food-based chain of supermarkets Sabeco and Alcampo hypermarket.

Table 2: main central's purchase of fruit and vegetable products operating in Spain belonging to chains of distribution based food (2008). In millions of euros.

• Dole Food Spain. It was created in 1994 as part of the European network of distribution of fruit of the Dole Food Company U.S. multinational. Particularity, as part of the fresh produce markets and that are cultivated in own holdings and others come from independent producers.

• sanlucar fruit. It sells a wide range of fruits and vegetables from various countries being the main markets of destination Germany and Austria.

• univeg trade spain. Belongs to the Belgian Univeg group whose business structure is organized into four strategic units, among them trade to the wholesale of fruit and vegetables, activity that focuses Univeg Trade Spain. The fruit and vegetable products come from both companies as of production.

Wholesalers in destination

They are a type of intermediaries that are placed between the retailers and wholesalers in origin. This group encompasses the establishments belonging to the Mercas network. They are part of the traditional channel of distribution, and its role has been reduced by the transformations occurred since the birth of the so-called 'great distribution'.

Table 3: ranking of the twenty largest marketing companies of citrus fruit, fresh fruit and vegetables in Spain. In millions of euros (2008).

Retailers

They are classified into several types:

• Hypermarkets: are department stores with a size exceeding 2,500 m² that are organized into specialized sections.

• Supermarkets: establishments of 400 to 2,500 m² where you can buy a wide variety of products that are mainly grouped in three departmental units (food, home & personal care). This figure is now pervasive in the sale of food products (Cajamar Foundation, 2009).

• Self-service shops: are establishments with less than 500 m²and whose business hours is more than 18 hours 365 days a year.

• Shops: small establishments specializing in particular products.

• Municipal markets: is a type of commercial format characterized by concentrated perishable food stores.

Described in the distribution channel, 23 food drives belonging to the network from Mercas * play a prominent role in the trade to the wholesale fruit and fresh vegetables, being the volume marketed a 55-60% of consumption in Spain. According to the figures provided by Mercasa, between groups of distributed products in the above network, fruit and vegetables accounted for 76.7%, being the category which encompassed a higher quota. The following posts were potatoes (10.4%), fish (7.9%) and meat (4.9%).

By geographical location, Mercamadrid and Mercabarna are the two largest wholesale markets, having held slightly more than half of the total volume sold of fresh fruit and vegetables by the aforementioned network in 2008.

Table 4: contributions of the volume marketed of groups of products in the network of Mercas (2000-2008). As a percentage. Source: Mercasa. Prepared by the authors.

Table 5: market shares by Mercas of total marketed fresh fruit and vegetables - includes potatoes-(2008). As a percentage. Source: Mercasa (2008). Prepared by the authors.