• The company, which grew by 23.6% in 2020 compared with the previous year, has appointed the former Deputy Director at Kölla Valencia who, among other things, has occupied the role of Fresh Produce Procurement Director at Carrefour, as well as Director at Socomo

• He is taking over this role from Jesús Gómez, who has become the new CEO of Foodiverse, the group to which Agromediterránea belongs

Murcia, 15 October 2021. Agromediterránea, a company specialised in the production and distribution of fresh vegetables, has announced today the appointment of Francisco Sánchez Ocerin as the new Managing Director. Sánchez Ocerin has more than 20 years of experience in the fruit and vegetable distribution sector, occupying until now the post of Deputy Director at Kölla Valencia and having previously worked as Fresh Produce Procurement Director for Carrefour and Manager of Socomo.

“I am extremely excited to be taking on this new role. Our challenge is to keep up the work carried out in recent years and establish Agromediterránea as a reference in the world of agriculture thanks to the variety of high-quality products, endorsement of innovation and commitment to sustainability. I am sure that with the support, hard work and dedication of the more than 1200 employees who make up our team, we will achieve our goals,” explained Francisco Sánchez Ocerin.

Sánchez Ocerin will be joining Agromediterránea in place of Jesús Gómez, who is moving on to become CEO of Foodiverse, the group that owns this agricultural company based in Dolores de Pacheco.

These appointments have come about under Foodiverse’s new strategic plan for 2022–2025, which also includes the incorporation of David Navas as the group’s new Business Development Director, bringing his international experience in companies such as Allianz or the Spanish supermarket chain Supermercados Dia.

Strategic plan for 2022–2025

This change in the management structure aims to take Agromediterránea and the rest of the Foodiverse business units to a whole new level in their development and growth strategy, all within the scope of the company’s new strategic plan for 2022–2025 entitled “Horizon 2025”.

Foodiverse’s main challenges are to become established as one of the main players in Europe in the market of fresh, healthy products through organic, sustainable growth, both on a national and international scale, and to explore which inorganic growth opportunities might be of interest to them to achieve this goal.

A major theme of this strategy is innovation, one of the group’s identifying features. In fact, last year, Foodiverse launched more than 130 new products, thus complementing an array of more than 1,000 product references. These launches also include more environmentally-friendly packaging options, as the company has designed the products with sustainability at the forefront.

As far as Agromediterránea are concerned, their aim is to secure their position as one of the main agricultural companies in Europe. Despite the difficulties posed within the context of the pandemic, the agricultural company ended 2020 having grown both in terms of sales and turnover thanks to new customers and products. Their achievements in the national market were particularly positive, doubling the results of the previous year. More specifically, they ended the last business year with a total turnover of 93.6 million euros, which is up by 23% from 2019.

Currently, the products that the company grows and sells are available in 25 European companies, and 30.4% of production is aimed at international markets.

Their main projects for the future include: launching new vegetable varieties adapted to consumer demand such as round courgettes and baby leaves; continuing to extend the organic BIO range; growing crops more efficiently by saving water and reducing the use of fertiliser by means of micro sprinkler systems or by installing soil moisture sensors; and by using more sustainable packaging and eliminating the use of plastic wherever possible.

About us:

Agromediterránea, part of the Foodiverse group, is a company that specialises in the cultivation and preparation of vegetables straight from the fields. Their work is based on highly regarded values such as innovation, quality and sustainability, which constitute a process that has a significant social impact: the healthy revolution.

Whilst holding on to its country roots, the company has adapted to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. To that end, they develop global solutions adapted to the needs of every customer and market.

Agromediterránea works with the main European supply chains, has over 4,000 hectares of field crops and, from their production centre located in Dolores de Pacheco (Murcia, Spain), they produce around 500 product references in different formats, packaging and weights. This includes a wide range of organic products with eco-labels.

In addition, the company has a range which is marketed under the brand name of Sun&Vegs.

Further information: http://agromediterranea.com/

• Through an interactive, virtual reality experience, the company offers the opportunity to see first hand how a seed is transformed into a fresh, ready-to-eat product.

• This activity will be featuring at the trade fair alongside the brand Sun&Vegs – a wide range of colourful fresh and ready-to-eat products with new highlights such as pattypan squash, yellow courgettes and purple radishes

Foodiverse, a multinational expert in the production of fresh, healthy food will be giving visitors at Fruit Attraction the chance to play a leading role in the healthy revolution. The company will be bringing a virtual reality experience to the fair that recreates the process in which a seed is transformed into a fresh, healthy, ready-to-eat product.

Those taking part in this innovative experience will be accompanied at all times by a virtual field technician called Fedra, who will guide them on their journey into the heart of the Foodiverse universe. The nursery, the Centre for Agricultural Innovation, the Farmitank where vegetables are farmed vertically, open-air farms and the processing plants of the ready-to-eat range are just some of the places that they will be able to visit and where they will be able to interact, for example, by planting or harvesting vegetables.

A themed area will be set up where visitors can find out about work processes, innovative farming methods, techniques to reduce water consumption in the different processes, facilities with cutting-edge technology and tools to guarantee the quality, safety and traceability of every product.

This interactive, virtual activity complements Foodiverse’s appearance at the Fruit Attraction trade fair where, through the brand Sun&Vegs, the company will be showcasing its new fresh and ready-to-eat products. At stand D-04 in hall 7, the brand will also be cooking before a live audience to show how these products can be used in healthy recipes that visitors will then be able to taste.  

Colour and sustainability

At Fruit Attraction the company will be focusing on two key themes: colour and sustainability. The colour is provided by the vegetables, ranging from green broccoli, purple radishes, the new yellow courgette and yellow sweetcorn grown in the fields and greenhouses, through to red oak leaf lettuce.

Sustainability, a value that is applied to all areas of the company, is reflected in an organic range that is expanding year after year. Marketed under the brand BIO Sun&Vegs, it includes a wide range of certified organic products such as green courgettes, broccoli, broccoli florets, iceberg lettuce, sweetcorn and radishes.

All of the packaging is also sustainable. At Fruit Attraction, Sun&Vegs will be showing the progress made in the reduction of packaging weights and through the introduction of new formats with a fundamental premise: to always use recycled material that is fully recyclable. The innovations that will be on show include plastic-free formats that guarantee food quality and safety such as trays made of cardboard or wrapped in tape made of kraft paper.

Visit us at Fruit Attraction:

Sun&Vegs

Hall 7 Stand D-04

• The company is bringing its healthy revolution to the fair with an array of fresh products straight from the field, full of new items like the star-shaped courgette, yellow courgette, and purple radishes.

• As part of its commitment to healthy eating and the environment, Sun&Vegs offers a wide catalogue of organic BIO products and multiple, more sustainable packaging solutions.

Valencia, 25 August 2021. Sun&Vegs, a brand that specialises in the production and preparation of fresh and healthy foods, will once again feature in the Fruit Attraction trade fair in 2021, which will be held in Madrid from 5 to 7 October. The brand will showcase several new items from its agricultural and fresh-cut product catalogue, as well as BIO options from both categories. The company’s stand will be full of freshness, colour, and innovation where visitors can see and taste the healthy revolution promoted by the brand.

A colourful agricultural line

Sun&Vegs will display its extensive product catalogue at the Fruit Attraction trade fair to respond to the new trends in a variety of consumer segments. Visitors will be able to discover its colourful catalogue of vegetables, from broccoli to farm- and greenhouse-grown corn to the latest agricultural innovations like purple radishes and different types of courgettes, including the star-shaped courgette, round courgette, and yellow courgette.

The colour green will take centre stage with the extensive range of lettuce varieties arriving straight from the field, such as lettuce hearts, romaine lettuce, little gem lettuce, and endives. The red oak leaf lettuce stands out among all the varieties for its intense colour. The colourful and innovative line complements the array of microgreens, nutrient-rich fresh vegetable sprouts, sold live or pre-cut, with flavours such as mustard, horseradish, broccoli, kale, cilantro, and basil.

Appealing to the five senses, the stand will also offer a space dedicated to herbs featuring varieties such as parsley, cilantro, spearmint, chives, and basil.

BIO line and more sustainable packaging

Sun&Vegs will also unveil its fresh-cut line at the Fruit Attraction trade fair that includes fresh and ready-to-eat bagged vegetables, complete salads, and microwavable fresh meals, offering options in line with the tastes and needs of today’s consumers.

Together with its traditional array of products, Sun&Vegs will bring its organic line to the fair to provide a response to the growing demand for these types of products. The agricultural products line under the BIO Sun&Vegs brand boasts vegetables such as green courgettes, broccoli and broccoli florets, iceberg lettuce, corn, and radishes. The fresh-cut BIO Sun&Vegs line includes bags of baby spinach, lamb’s lettuce, rocket, and Iberian lettuce mix, as well as the complete certified organic Caesar salad. In total, more than 20 products boast the ecological production certificate.

In its commitment to sustainability, Sun&Vegs continually researches packing and packaging, reducing the thickness and seeking more sustainable alternatives which in turn guarantee the food safety and quality of every product. The company will present its latest milestones at the trade fair, including packages for complete salads made with recycled and 100% recyclable material, as well as zero plastic packaging options for agricultural products, promoting cardboard trays and wrapping with kraft paper ribbons as alternatives.

Visit us at Fruit Attraction: Sun&Vegs – Hall 7 Stand D-04

• It has also installed moisture probes to optimise both water and nutrient resources and prevent leaching losses

• The company is applying these techniques to grow its crops more sustainably after two years of trials as part of the NUVES research project, coordinated by Proexport and the Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT)

• The details of this project were announced during a visit to the company’s facilities by the Murcia regional government’s Minister for Water and Agriculture, Antonio Luengo

Dolores de Pacheco (Murcia), 5 July 2021 – Agromediterránea has begun applying new techniques to improve the efficiency of fertigation in its crops. These include trialling nitrification inhibitors and installing moisture probes to optimise both water and nutrient resources and prevent leaching losses.

These improvements are the result of two years of research carried out on an experimental site. Now the company is bringing this technology on to its farms for the first time. Specifically, it has chosen a broccoli crop in the Region of Murcia to test the technique’s viability in real production before extending it to its other farms.

The trials have been carried out as part of the operational group of the Sustainable Plant Nutrition (NUVES) project coordinated by Proexport, with the participation of the Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT).

The incorporation of nitrification inhibitors reduces nitrogen losses through deep percolation and surface entrainment, as well as emissions to the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the implantation of sensors in the subsoil is a further step towards knowing what each plant needs at each moment and in each phase of growth. In this way, the quantities of water and nutrients can be adjusted.

The two measures are complementary: on the one hand, determining the exact amount of resources needed allows both water and nutrients to be absorbed quickly; on the other, inhibitors help to ensure that the small part not absorbed is not transformed into nitrates.

“We are 21^st-century farmers. We innovate right from the seed to the vegetables reaching the consumer, and sustainability is a priority. We take care of the land, we protect the environment, we use only the essential resources and we grow fresh vegetables that are appreciated throughout Europe,” said Jesús Gómez, Managing Director of Agromediterránea.

The results of this project were announced during a visit by the Murcia regional government’s Minister for Water and Agriculture, Antonio Luengo, to the company’s facilities in Dolores de Pacheco (Murcia). Esther Verdú, the director of ESPACE, the agricultural and operations unit, also attended.

During the visit, Luengo also learned about the technological innovations applied at Agromediterránea’s production plant to make it one of the most modern in Europe. Most important of these is the fully automated, smart warehouse, which, together with the other cold stores, provides storage capacity of 50,000 m³.There are also vacuum cooling systems that increase the shelf life of products so that they reach the consumer in optimum condition.

NUVES Project

The NUVES project began in 2019, coordinated by Proexport. It involves companies from the industry in the region of Murcia, including Agromediterránea with the expert backing of the Plant Protection Section at the Technical University of Cartagena.

The aim is to find new techniques to improve the efficiency of fertigation using different nitrification inhibitors (DCD and DMPP) and nutrient supply rates. This project is financed by Murcia’s Rural Development Programme, with the participation of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment.