Afrucat: associationism charged with electricity

The filmmaker Carla Simón showed in the film Alcarràs the hard work in the fields and the many economic difficulties faced by fruit growers.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 February 2023 Friday 15:49
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Afrucat: associationism charged with electricity

The filmmaker Carla Simón showed in the film Alcarràs the hard work in the fields and the many economic difficulties faced by fruit growers. Since the film was shot, these difficulties have been aggravated by the sharp rise in energy prices. In addition, 2022 was a year of poor harvests due to spring frosts, increasingly frequent due to the climate crisis.

One of the safe-conducts of the sector to deal with bad seasons like the last one is associationism. In the case of Afrucat, the Catalan Fruit Business Association, it is an association charged with electricity. In 2008, the organization pioneered the aggregate purchase of electricity. "It was not easy to convince the associates to abandon the electricity marketer of a lifetime to become a single negotiating voice before the companies in the electricity sector," recalls Manel Simón, general director of Afrucat.

"Everyone told us that it would be a disaster, but we did not back down and we invited all the marketers to participate in the first bidding process for electricity consumption by Afrucat companies," explains José Enrique Vázquez, the association's energy advisor. and president of the Group of Energy Managers of Catalonia. "The winner of the first tender was the German company EON, with a price 36% lower than the price that people told us was impossible to lower," adds Vázquez proudly. In 2011, Afrucat reconverted sealed bids into inverted electronic auctions. "We created our own platform for auctions, Agroplace, which can be accessed by all electricity resellers and with which the associate can be sure that no one is left with commissions," says Simón. "The Afrucat partner sets a starting price and indicates the maximum price that he is willing to pay, and the cheapest offer wins," explains Vázquez.

With the increase in prices, these auctions have become biannual instead of annual. In the last one, held in June 2022, the associates achieved a reduction of between 4% and 14%, depending on the contracted rate. "Savings are getting less and less because the big sales already took place at the beginning," says Simón.

“The purchasing potential that Afrucat has today is the most important in the sector in Spain. It has achieved a model of success recognized throughout Europe, which has been copied by other organizations”, says the association's energy consultant. Now Afrucat plans to go one step further and establish itself as an energy community. This new figure would allow them to be able to buy electricity with a single NIF, but also to generate energy for self-consumption jointly. "Thanks to the available aid, the fruit sector has launched to install photovoltaic solar panels to be less dependent on the purchase of external electricity and reduce its energy costs. With the energy community we could invest, among all of us, in the construction of a solar or photovoltaic park to generate our own electricity”, points out Simón.

The 83 fruit-producing companies that make up Afrucat represent a combined electricity consumption of around 75 GW. "The figure reached 110 GW, but thanks to the installation of panels for self-consumption of electricity and the implementation of energy efficiency measures, spending has been reduced significantly in recent years," adds Manel Simón. The general director explains that the cold rooms, necessary so that the fruit does not spoil once harvested, represent the main electricity expense in the sector and this basically occurs in the hottest months, which is when the solar panels perform at their best .

The 83 companies that make up Afrucat, which jointly manage some 45,000 hectares and some 1,100 million kilograms of fruit, produce 55% of the pears in the entire country, 65% of the apples and 40% of the peaches and nectarines. In jobs, they generate 10,000 stable jobs and up to 40,000 in the middle of the fruit harvesting campaign, in summer.