The cooperation between the Florida company and Agrimola group continues. In 2021, Florida soc. coop. agricola became part of Agrimola and, in 2022, it supplied it with 400 tons of summer fruit, which were then processed by the Agrimola facility.
Luca Sassi and Giovanni Pasquariello
Florida boasts 40 partners in Campania, Basilicata and Calabria covering over 100 hectares of stone fruit orchards - mostly apricots but also peaches, percoca peaches and plums - which will increase in the next few years thanks to the new ones planned. In addition to stone fruit, it also boasts a good production of chestnuts, tangerines, oranges, lemons, Williams pears and quinces.
In addition to commercializing the produce from its partners, the company also performs a first processing such as e.g. stalk removal and freezing of strawberries, stalk removal and freezing of figs, grading, sorting and sterilization of chestnuts and grading and sorting of stone and citrus fruit. The cooperative holds the Bioagricert certification and mostly processes organic produce aimed mainly at the canning industry.
"Società cooperativa agricola Florida Capua (Caserta) was set up in 2012 by the Pasquariello family. After the passing of grandfather Giovanni, known as 'Spenna', his son Michele started managing the company together with his son Giovanni, who combined new technical skills and new dreams with his passion for agriculture. Now he is the soul of the company, the thread between past and present. He boasts the same tenacity and passion of his father Michele, a responsible and passionate grower who strongly believed in a natural agriculture capable of respecting the soil and producing excellent-quality fruit and vegetables," reads a company note.
"Agrimola and Agrisanterno are ever-evolving and constantly looking to the future. Since 2022, we invested a lot in the IQF dicing / halving line as well as in the purée and pulp line, with an overall investment exceeding €3 million," commented Luca Sassi, Ceo at Agrimola.
"As for the IQF line, we integrated the pitting line with an automatic bin tilter to achieve constant dosing without crushing the raw material and with a specific grader to guarantee a better quality and efficiency."
When it comes to the purée line, a new concentric-pipe sterilization and cooling system was introduced with a 1 cm annular space to process fine purée and pulp as well as dices to improve the final texture of the produce. The excellent heat exchange enables to sterilize the produce in a short time and at high temperature, reducing the cooking effect and conveying better freshness and color to the finished product.
"Finally, we coupled the current pulp line with a new line that can process 2,000 kg/hour. The objective is to double the production capacity to reduce the labor needed and diminish the time raw material spends in cold storage unit, thus improving the quality of the finished product."
For further information:
Agrimola Spa 
Via G. Di Vittorio n. 30,
40020 Casalfiumanese (Bologna) Italy
+39 0542666072
[email protected]
www.agrimola.it
Coop Florida
Giovanni Pasquariello
+39 335.7751043
[email protected]