GARLAN: Presentation and role in the project

GARLAN  was created in 1986 under the legal formula of cooperative of second degree, as a result of the union of four agricultural cooperatives of first grade.

Throughout the years, more companies have been integrated into the GARLAN structure, reaching 8 cooperative societies of the first degree plus 255 holders of agricultural holdings, which makes a social base of +800 farmers.

Since its creation, its objective has been aimed at improving and optimizing the commercialization structures of agricultural products and supplies in order to access increasingly competitive and globalized markets.

Since its creation, GARLAN has significantly increased its turnover, going from five million euros to more than seventy euros at present. The volume of investment in this period has been more than fifteen million euros.

Starting from the initial activity, oriented to the commercialization of cereals of the cooperative members, GARLAN has increased its lines of activity, incorporating new ones: selecting seeds of cereals and protein crops, handling and storing potatoes, commercializing and elaborating mixtures of fertilizers and crop protectors of agrarian use, creating a credit section to finance the activities of the partners, offering agricultural and general insurances adapted to the needs of agricultural operations, producing, selecting and marketing processed food (preserved foods, basically beans and vegetables), advising technically the partner farmers, in addition to other complementary services.

This evolution and diversification of GARLAN's activities has led to the creation of fourty consolidated jobs, in addition to a very competitive commercial structure and handling of agricultural products and processed food products made mainly of vegetables and fruits.

GARLAN: innovation orientated company

All the above mentioned with the aim of improving and optimizing the resources and the necessary tools for marketing and agricultural supplies, to consolidate both its activity and that of its partners and access to increasingly globalized and competitive markets.

The identification and development of the previous services are the fruit of many years of an innovation strategy aimed at strengthening the positioning of the cooperative and its partners through the development of tools and services: characteristic of agricultural activity (selection of seeds, manipulation of potatoes, legumes, etc.) as well as complementary services like credit section for financing, agricultural insurance, etc. With the objective that the farms can produce their products with the necessary quality and guarantees.

Once its offer has been consolidated (GARLAN has the control of the entire food value chain: from the farm to the consumer) and the services and products offered guarantee GARLAN presence in the market and a competitive production, GARLAN is giving a turn to its innovation strategy to offer greater added value to its associates from the analysis of the demand of the market.

New line of innovation of GARLAN

Once consolidated the services offered to the cooperative partners as well as the current naturally processed food products that GARLAN offers to the market. GARLAN is going a step forwards in order to offer new products responding the market needs (new trends, consumer habits, market segmentation, etc.) and to be able to commercialize a product with a greater added value and, therefore, greater profit margin for both, GARLAN and its associates.

In this line, GARLAN currently is commercialising a range of processed legumes, vegetables and fruits elaborated through a natural traditional process (preserved foods) and positioned as “naturally/traditionally healthy” Right now GARLAN is working on expanding this range of products responding to a food innovation approach based on convenience, health and experience in order of providing new functional or nutritionally enhanced products to respond to market needs.

The new line generated within the project will represent a new product line in the company in terms of the development of new functional and sustainable products. The improvement of the nutritional profile ("without", "reduced") and the use of new functional-differential ingredients that allow to reduce the sugar content and generate a new nutritional claim will favour the increase in the competitiveness of the company as well as the quality offered to the consumers.

In addition, this project is proposed in terms of sustainability - environmental, circular and economy. The project covers three dimensions: 1) respect for the environment 2) social aspects of production and 3) economic profitability of the productive activity obtaining the differentiating ingredient that makes GARLAN a much more competitive company.