The town of Cambados, in the Spanish province of Pontevedra, is the location of the headquarters of what is currently the only Fruit and Vegetable Producers Organization (FVPO) of Galicia, Horsal S.C.G. "The cooperative was founded in 1986 by a group of growers in order to better defend their productions. At that time, they mainly cultivated green beans intended for marketing in central markets, but speculation and the lack of transparency of intermediaries led them to joining forces and forming the current Horsal cooperative," says Fernando Veiga, manager of the entity.
"Today it is made up of 92 horticultural partners, most of them working with local and sustainable models of family farming. The farms stand out for being small in size, and the vegetable growing activity is usually combined with other activities, such as viticulture. It is worth remembering that we are in a shellfishing and Albariño wine production area. All in all, we closed 2021 with 3.2 million kilos marketed and 4.4 million Euro in turnover."
Padron pepper greenhouse. The tagetes are used in the biological fight against thrips.
These are remarkable figures that highlight the value of associativity and cooperative collaboration. In fact, thanks to this union, Horsal was able to obtain its FVPO status in 2009.
"Last year we obtained reasonable prices for our production, but they were lower than the CPI variation. Inputs went up a lot at the production, processing, handling or packaging levels, and it is very difficult to pass those costs on to the final price," says Fernando (in the picture). "In general, pricing laws follow very common trends everywhere, as most of the products end up in the hands of very few distributors. However, the fact that we are fundamentally oriented to the market of the northwest quadrant of the peninsula, which accounts for 80% of our turnover with mostly local production, sometimes gives us a certain advantage over the generic market. Nevertheless, we also export, mainly our most outstanding product, the Padron pepper, which we ship to Germany, France and the United Kingdom."
Galician vegetables
The Padron pepper is a bell pepper variety native to Galicia which, as the name itself reveals, comes from the A Coruña parish of Padron. "In Galicia, the Padron pepper season starts at the beginning of May and lasts for 5 months. The Galician production is highly appreciated, and although it is not the product from which we obtain the highest turnover, it is our most commercially attractive pepper."
"Fifteen days ago, our partners started with the bell pepper plantings, so at the moment, the Padron peppers that are on the market come from other Spanish Mediterranean production areas or from Morocco," says Fernando Veiga.
"Another purely Galician bell pepper variety that we grow in Horsal is the Arnoia bell pepper. This bell pepper is protected under a PGI in A Arnoia, in the province of Orense, where production has dropped, and our partners have chosen to continue growing it in Pontevedra, even though it falls outside the PGI's geographical scope."
"As for onions, we produce flat onions. This onion stands out for its flattened shape and is an autochthonous typology of Galicia, where there is a great variety of local ecotypes: Betanzos, Mondoñedo, Corón... Our production groups all those flat onions, from the autochthonous ecotypes that growers plant with the seeds they collect from their own plantations to the commercial variety Paja Virtudes, developed from the Betanzos ecotype by breeders."
"At the moment, we are producing winter leafy vegetables: lettuces, cabbage, kale and pointed cabbage, turnip greens (the traditional vegetable of Galicia), chard and spinach. Also, over the next few months we will continue to have flat onions, as well as fiddlehead squash for another 2-3 weeks."
New projects: Fresh-cut convenience food and an organic line
According to Fernando, Horsal is immersed in two new projects that have been undertaken in the last year. "We have launched a certified organic production line with which we expect to achieve significant growth in the coming seasons. Also, last year we started with great enthusiasm a line of fresh-cut Batavia lettuce and turnip greens, two niche products for the northwestern market of the Iberian Peninsula," says the manager of the Galician FVPO.
For more information:
Fernando Veiga
Horsal S.C.G.
C/ Pardiño 10 B
36633 Vilariño, Cambados, Pontevedra. Spain
Telf.: +34 986 542 195
[email protected]
www.horsalscg.com