Agricola Hermita 32 S.L. Spain

A small story The beginning of the company goes back to the year 1992 when a young enterprising man called Pedro Jose Ros Sanchez begins an experience in the world of agricultural production; at the beginning he started planting small plots of land in a traditional method, with few economic means and little machinery. The production which he produced was commercialised by a few local stores in the area. Years later, the company grows rapidly, when it has sufficient production to start its own commercialising, renting a small pack house so that he can manipulate his own production to export to European markets, after a long struggle he gets his first clients and the consolidation of the company. At the present the company can rely on an area of 2. 000 hectares of plantations split up into different areas and 300 people, dedicated to the production of 60 million lettuce heads (Iceberg) , 10 million kilos of broccoli, 7 million units of romaine lettuce heads, 12 million heads of little gem and 2 million pieces of different varieties of lettuces. Also we produce 4 million kilos of melon, Gallia for the European market and cantaloupe melon for the French market. All of this commercialised to some of the best supermarket chains in Europe. In the season of 2006-2007 the company markets a new challenge, which is the conquest of the national market that is why we have a production during all the year so that we are able to satisfy to the maximum our supermarket chains with fresh produce for their clients. For this is we have farms in areas where the climate and soil are different, always looking for the best quality in our products at all times, minimising the use of insecticides and authorized fertilizers, always respecting the environment and making the most of the resources. THE WATER IS VERY SCARE IN OUR AREA that is why we have teams of investigation who develop new methods of making the most of the resources and work in the fields. The plantations are located in the provinces of Murcia, Albacete, Almeria, Granada and Alicante all near by, adapting to the culture, variety of the area and climatologically suitable for the moment. Everything is manipulated in two stores placed in areas of production and separated by cultures and products. Packing house in Totana (Murcia) This has a pack house of 5. 000meters on a plot of land of 30. 000meters prepared for the manipulation of broccoli and melon in the summer period, this has a working force of 160 people, weighing machines, calibrating machines for the packing of the product, 3 coolers divided into: one cooler is for the reception of the product from the fields for quick pre cooling before the packing of the product, two coolers are used for maintain the finished product. Here we also have an ice making machine for the packing of loose broccoli for the Irish markets of high requirements, also we do the second skin by machine and by hand wrapped. The melon is packed by weighing and calibrating piece by piece then packed and cooled. This is a pack house of 4000 meters which at this moment is being reformed, here there are over 50 workers specialised in packing and manipulation of lettuces (iceberg, romaine, little gem etc. ) , here there are three cold storage rooms with high capacity of chilling, we also have a vacuum-cooling system which is very important in the manipulation of the lettuce as it give the lettuce a longer shell life. The calibration of the lettuce is done by machinery which classifies the lettuce by volume