The Grupo Cuevas launched a new technology platform that has a fully new cold system for the preservation and processing of fruits and vegetables. Its entry into service can quadruple the production capacity of Frunatur, a company from the group that specializes in distributing these products.
The company general director, Artur Yuste and Rosa Quintana, the Regional Minister of Rural and Sea, presented this action at a press conference at the headquarters of the company.
Frunatur has just finished the technological project of enlarging and improving the production facilities located in the main street of the estate of San Cibrao das Viñas.
The operation consisted on the construction of a cold platform to accommodate the latest technologies in preservation and processing of fruits and vegetables. The budget exceeds 1.3 million euro and has the collaboration of the Department.
Artur Yuste stressed that with this investment the company reinforced its commercial positioning in the markets of Galicia and Portugal as well as widened its range of healthy food.
In his speech, he stressed that Frunatur is now the best example of the ongoing commitment of the Grupo Cuevas for innovation and technology.
The new facilities will increase the complex located in San Cibrao Frunatur das Viñas by 1,400 square meters. The conservation area consists of four cold chambers that allow where different temperatures and humidities can be individually changed depending on the type of product to be conserved, thus improving the process, both in the conservation area for vegetables, citrus and bananas as well as in the reserved area for pome and stone fruits.
This infrastructure ensures that the cold chain won't be altered throughout the distribution process, from the storage stage of raw materials to the delivery to end-customers.
Artur Yuste said that Frunatur applied technology and innovation to improve and so that customers see the company grow. Frunatur is our philosophy, feeling and way of doing things, stressed the general director of Grupo Cuevas.
He also stressed that the shelf life of the fruits and vegetables is very short and that the bet is to try to extend it, conserving them in the best possible way. He also said that the cold chain was a constant that allowed the fruits to last 2, 3, 4 or 5, 6, 7 and 8 days at home.
Meanwhile, the Regional Minister of Rural and Sea, Rosa Quintana, said that the Grupo Cuevas had always been a reference and praised them for continuing to invest year after year in innovation and new technology and being capable of presenting a project that would get everyone to taste local produce with an identical flavour as when it was harvested.
Rosa Quintana stressed that this was the job of a group of people who believed in the future of rural Galicia and in the future of primary sectors; people who worked closely with each of the links that make up the rural development.
Frunatur billed nearly 3 million in 2012 with an investment figure of 700,000 euro and a volume of 3,500 tons of processed fruits and vegetables. The society has an average staff of 17 employees and forecasts for 2013 are that sales will grow around 15 percent and that there will be a steady increase of qualified personnel at end of the year.
