COEXPHAL

COEXPHAL (SPAIN) is the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producer organizations of Almería (in Southeast Spain), the majority of the members being agricultural cooperatives who jointly market their product. It was created in 1977 as an association of 17 cooperatives to provide common services and to obtain much needed market power and recognition. Currently, Coexphal has 67 members, out of which 45 are cooperatives. 46 people work in Coexphal and over 100 people work in the COEXPHAL group providing a wide range of services to members (see www.coexphal.es for services and activities and http://almeriaenverde.es for current topics and information). The members of COEXPHAL represent 65% of exports and 70% of fruit and vegetable production in Almería. After joining the European community, COEXPHAL focused on a growing number of administrative and technical services, including legal advice; organisation of training of formation programs; consulting with respect to labour, funding and subsidies, e.g. coordinating the CMO-funding for its’ associates. COEXPHAL has played an important role in the “green revolution” undertaken by the Almeria sector on a wide scale since 2007. As a result of this, biological pest control was implemented in over 80% of the crops in the province, reducing drastically the use of chemical pesticides. Furthermore, R&D into renewable energy and other environmentally sustainable practices is a core activity.