Westward expansion. Agrodolores, an agricultural company with several operating centers in Campo de Cartagena, has just inaugurated its new facilities in the Almería municipality of Adra after acquiring a marketing company and a warehouse belonging to the defunct Agrupa Adra. This growth responds to the company's strategic interest in expanding its operations beyond the borders of the Region of Murcia, in a location where they had already been working for three years with a pepper collection point from September to March that served as a prelude to the campaign of this vegetable in the Murcian Community. The intention, highlights the executive president of Agrodolores, Simón Conesa, is to “guarantee service twelve months a year to our clients.”
The vast majority of production in this agricultural area of Almería is carried out under a greenhouse, which makes production possible during the winter to link it in March with the campaign in Murcia. “Our goal right now is to consolidate the start of activity in Adra and continue fighting in the facilities we already have in Murcia.” There they have “more than one hundred farmers under the supervision.” The company turned 40 years old in 2023, leading the auction sector in the Region. Its work centers in Campo de Cartagena, which consist of two warehouses and a marketing company, are distributed between the district of El Mirador in San Javier, a productive hub for greenhouse crops in Murcia, and two others in Dolores de Pacheco and El Jimenado, in Torre Pacheco.
Increases turnover
It has 200 workers on staff and moves more than one hundred million kilos of horticultural production each year and a turnover that has grown in recent years. These data were presented at the end of December by Conesa in the new facilities in Adra, where the Ministers of Agriculture of the Region of Murcia and Andalusia, Sara Rubira and Carmen Crespo, attended the inauguration. In 2021 the company's turnover was around 40 million euros, while in 2022 that figure increased by 50% and in 2023 they have managed to invoice almost 90 million euros, “a record figure for us and tremendously important.” .
The firm has 200 employees on staff, and moves more than one hundred million kilos of vegetables per year.
A cover letter with which the executive president of Agrodolores wanted to make it clear that it is a “reliable company, which leads the auction sector in Murcia” and whose main strategy is to continue growing “with profitability in order to be more competitive.” and efficient.” Conesa expects that the growth in Almería will amount to between approximately 25 and 30 million euros. Their bets for this year are to consolidate and exceed the volume of operations of 2023. In fact, the forecast is to buy 14 million kilos in Almería in the winter campaign.
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«The administrations are hyperregulating the field»
The lack of water entails a greater problem in the Campo de Cartagena than in the more agricultural municipalities of Almería, confirms Simón Conesa, president of Agrodolores, but adds that the problem of the lack of water resources will affect all farmers equally. to continue like this. “In Almería there is great concern about water.”
Added to this is the problem of inflation and high production costs. Conesa also adds “pressure” from public administrations, which “are hyper-regulating the entire agricultural sector, something that we see as a very important risk because there may come a time when there is no production and we have difficulties in having products available at “reasonable prices.”
All this cocktail, he assures, and mainly the “administrative pressure”, is causing “many farmers to give up because they are very low emotionally.” The lack of control by the European Union over the entry of products from third countries is another problem that has not been fixed.
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