A business group that, through strategic business alliances including research sector, achieves innovation and sustainability in the agricultural sector
La Caña Business Group is a group of affiliated companies that has more than 40 years of experience as a marketer, producer, exporter and importer of fruit and vegetable products. It is located on the tropical coast of Granada and Almería.
It is a company in constant transformation, expanding its cultivation areas and modernizing its activities and production lines. To do this, it carries out different R&D activities with a specific department that is supported by a network of entities related to the world of research, both technology centres and university research groups. It currently collaborates with the Universities of Granada, Almería and Málaga and works with several technology centres such as Tecnova, Ainia, CIDAF, CTA, CNTA or Tecnalia.
It participates directly in projects related to the improvement of crops, product quality, process optimization and especially the revaluation of by-products and the creation of new products, both in fresh produce and in its fifth-range Caña Nature industry. With these practices, the main beneficiaries are both the farmers and the clients, consumers, companies in the sector and, of course, the company itself.
It has become a provider of innovative solutions, both for local farmers and for their clients, as well as a benchmark in terms of food safety and environmental sustainability, forming part of the circular bioeconomy.
Resources needed
The group has sufficient technical and HR capabilities to carry out this entire project, which includes more than 40,000 square meters of warehouses, its own production farms and 9 collection centers. In terms of human resources, it has more than 200 employees distributed in varied departments
Evidence of success
The Company Caña Business Group has been incorporated into an innovative logic of cooperation and alliances that is giving results using a circular bioeconomy approach. Below you find some circular economy projects funded by either European or national funding:
• FEDER: ACTIVEOLIVE and BIOREFINA
• Horizon 2020: PROSEAFOOD and MEDITOMATO
• CDTI R&D Projects: AVOCEMTUM
• CIEN: ACTILIFE and FOOD4STROKE
Information about the bioeconomy approach and the projects https://bit.ly/3stuf5L
Difficulties encountered
Bureaucracy can make projects very rigid.
It is difficult to achieve a balance between general work dynamics and conjunctural coordination between areas.
Going from pilot to industrial scale is complex.
Find the right allies to carry out an initiative with the real implementation.
Potential for learning or transfer
It is a business practice that stands out for three aspects: its vocation for environmental sustainability, its innovation in processes and the establishment of alliances, both with companies and with research centres.
This governance system allows, on the one hand, to grow and incorporate new economic actors in the area, providing services to facilitate not only their business development but also to do it in a more sustainable way, something they could not do on the scale they have. On the other hand, the constant collaboration with knowledge agents generates a learning environment that allows progress in the creation of knowledge and a direct effect on the benefits to the company and consumers.
This business model can be exported to other territories, learning from the lessons as a flexible business system, technology validator and generator of new products
Tags: Access to finance, Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Biotechnology, Circular economy
