El sector frutícola del Sureste de España a través de la empresa Frutas Esther, S.A.

Resumen

In the Southeast of Spain the stone fruit sector (apricot, peach, Paraguayan peach, nectarine, platerina, plum, cherry, etc.) and table grape (varieties with and without seed), has great importance regarding the area occupied, the volume of production, the income generated, etc. Harvest-exporting companies like Frutas Esther S.A. (headquarters located in the Vega Alta del Segura, Abarán), have contributed to the development of the sector with the practice of staggered production in various places (according to environmental conditions) to meet the demands of the markets (interior and exterior). All the production is cultivated in irrigation lands and they have invested in the improvement of irrigation and cultivation, with different R+D+i projects that have allowed to introduce new varieties and to use deficit irrigation systems. The company employs more than 2,500 workers (more than half of them of foreign origin) in the collection and handling of fruits (including table grapes) at the peak of the campaigns, from May to July. In 2017 they exceeded 55.80 million kg of fruit marketed (including 4.32 million of strawberries from Huelva). Its main destination is the foreign market (77.29%), with continuous changes in the varieties of fruit and in the ways of presenting the product, to respond to the tastes of consumers, and the demands of quality and food safety. It is a case study of a family business like Frutas Esther, S.A. Its activity as a horticultural operator leads this company to become Agroalimentary Group (delegations in La Coruña, in Cartaya (Huelva), and in Kent-United Kingdom). The company participates in an import-export company in order to face the difficulties of distribution abroad. The analysis of the operator FRUTAS ESTHER, S.A. let us explain the current process of fruit commercialization (understood as a symbiosis between production, manipulation, and distribution) in a global agrifood chain.