"Innovation and sustainability are relevant milestones that should be on the agenda of any strategic plan."

Interview Cajamar

The Cajamar Cooperative Group is the leading financial group for cooperative banking in Spain. Made up of 19 entities, it has 3,7 million clients and more than 1,6 million members, and operates in the market through 842 offices and 174 agencies. As of March 31, 2023, it had assets amounting to 62.982 million euros, and a managed business volume of 99.100 million euros.

---

 

Innovation and support for the agri-food sector have gone hand in hand with Cajamar since its origins, as demonstrated by initiatives such as the Cajamar Innova incubator, the Tierra Platform and the Las Palmerillas Experimental Station, located in Almería. We talk about all this in this interview with three of its directors: Ramón Gil, director of the Experimental Station, Alejandro Blaas, director of Plataforma Tierra, and Ricardo García, director of Cajamar Innova. 

 

What does the Las Palmerillas Experimental Station represent for Cajamar?

 

Ramón Gil, director of the Las Palmerillas Experimental Station: “The Las Palmerillas Experimental Station for Cajamar represents a lot in everything related to the agri-food sector. In 1975 the station was created motivated because the Caja Rural de Almería, upon obtaining its first profits, decided to invest in this Experimental Station to be able to support all our farmers in the adventure of joining this new growing medium, greenhouses. It was thought that it would be a good option to test all technology before making it available to the sector; "We wanted them to minimize this margin of error so that they could have optimal results."

 

What weight does innovation have in Cajamar's activity?

 

Ramon Gil: "Innovation and Cajamar are two words that are linked. If we refer to the agri-food sector, our support has always gone towards innovative processes that improve the productivity of our farms. 

There have been several important innovations; for example the development of vegetables in greenhouses; Being able to cultivate with a sanding system allowed a fairly significant increase in production compared to the previous land cultivation. A transformation was carried out towards the raspa y amagado greenhouse, which is the most predominant in the Almeria countryside, and later towards a more industrial, multi-tunnel or ogival greenhouse that allows better control of temperature, radiation, humidity, and in this way obtain higher quality in our farms. 

A very important milestone was the incorporation of drip irrigation, which made it possible to optimize the water given in irrigation, see what the soil humidity is, what the demand that the plant needs, and through machines have greater control of everything that was happening both in the soil and in the plant to be able to minimize water losses and provide the plants with their necessary nutrients and water.”

 

What importance do you give to sustainability?

Ramon Gil: "It's fundamental. The different lines of work, both in our Experimental Center and in our Experience Center in Paiporta, Valencia, follow four lines of work: greenhouse technology, food and health, bioeconomy and agro-sustainability, in which if something should last, it is to do things in the most sustainable way possible to have continuity over time. For example, biological pest control. Here in the Almeria countryside, 90-odd percent of the surface is carried out with biological control; In this way we ensure that natural predators, insects, can prey on these pest insects, thus minimizing the contribution of phytosanitary products. 

The efficient use of water is another fundamental sustainability technique. A couple of years ago we launched our high-tech business water incubator to try to find all possible solutions linked to the efficient use of water: desalination processes, water regeneration... We are in a period of significant drought and any solutions that can be provided to minimize this consumption will always be welcome.”

 

How does Cajamar help Spanish companies implement innovation in their businesses, particularly those in the agri-food sector?

Ramon Gil: “At Cajamar we understand that, given our knowledge in the agri-food sector, we always try to advise our clients on any investment they are going to make. If we focus on any productive area, whether agricultural or livestock, everything that entails a process of varietal reconversion, of crops where varieties become obsolete and are not in demand in the market towards varieties that have that recognition by users, always It is important.

The degree of mechanization is also essential to try to minimize labor costs and, well, economies of scale are achieved with a larger surface area, minimizing these unit costs. 

Regarding decision making It is essential that our farmers and ranchers, before undertaking a new investment, obtain advice properly, with technicians, with veterinarians; Know what varieties are most suitable for that area or what breed of animals for that farm you want to start. That they always do it from a technical perspective will allow them to make more accurate decisions. 

And, of course, marketing is fundamental. Whenever you're about to undertake a new investment, look at the possible marketing channels: what are the distributors demanding, within what timeframes, on what dates, for which destinations, to see where you need to focus your efforts. Do your farm have the necessary characteristics for a specific variety, for a particular management approach, depending on the available water, your soil analysis…

 

Alejandro Blaas, director of Plataforma Tierra: “The Cajamar cooperative bank has been developing its own innovation ecosystem for years based on three pillars: experimental centers specialized in study and research on intensive Mediterranean agriculture; Cajamar Innova, which is an incubator for water technology companies; and Earth Platform, which is the initiative for the digitalization of the agri-food sector, which I represent. 

CXTierra, our exploitation notebook It comes to cover a need that the sector has for a regulatory change. What is an exploitation notebook? Basically, in it the producer has to record data about the crop itself, location, what type of fertilizers and phytosanitary products they are using. This record is a database that records when you have performed an action and how much and what type. These new regulations require restrictions, rules, and a series of recommendations to improve production but also to protect the environment. The exploitation notebook becomes a tool for recording the day-to-day operations of the exploitation. both on the part of the producer and the technical advisor of the farm, who is the one who will recommend these phytosanitary products or fertilizers. This database must be delivered digitally to the Ministry on a monthly basis and that is the solution that Cajamar is providing with CXTierra.”

 

Cajamar has an incubator for high-tech water companies, Cajamar Innova. What assessment can you make of the three editions of this project so far?

Ricardo García, director of Cajamar Innova and deputy director of Agri-Food Innovation at Cajamar: "Three years ago, together with the Incyde Foundation, of the Higher Council of Chambers of Spain, and with the support of European funds, we decided from the Cajamar Group to set up a very vertical accelerator specialized in providing a solution to the problem, which is a systemic problem, of water scarcity. The balance is very positive. We have received more than 350 applications and We have helped mentor and model the business plan of more than 62 startup companies. 

From the strictly financing field, we are helping them to seek rounds of financing so that the idea in its initial phase or already in the acceleration phase can not only model that business plan, but also scale its solution in the technological field. We insist, very focused on the particular agri-food industry, but also on the industry in general, because the water problem is a widespread and unfortunately systemic problem.”

 

What do you think are the most disruptive trends in the financial sector today and how prepared is Cajamar to face them?

Ricardo Garcia: “Undoubtedly right now the financial sector has three great challenges, which we can also extrapolate to the agri-food field. On the one hand, professionalization; two, the search for size; and three, innovation. In fact, answering the second question at Cajamar we have been advocating for more than 60 years that both the field of Innovation, together with the issue of sustainability, are relevant milestones that must be on the agenda of any strategic plan. any financial institution. 

In the last 60 years We have demonstrated with facts that we are an entity very focused on both the issue of innovation and the issue of sustainability, being a benchmark in the agronomic industry of this country.”

 

What do you think are the main challenges that internationalized companies face when implementing innovation?

Ricardo Garcia:  “One of the biggest challenges we are going to have to face is the climate change. A dear colleague, we are surely the first and the last generation that can at least try, without alarmism, and laying the foundations for where the business field should go.  

I believe that the issue of internationalization, assuming that strategic issues such as innovation and sustainability must be prioritized, is fundamental. Regardless of the economic and financial uncertainties that we are facing, our entity believes that Internationalized companies are much more resilient, more efficient and in the long run more profitable. We consider it essential that a company is promoting its internationalization plans as a strategic line from our entity.”

 

What do you think Spanish companies should implement, if they have not already done so, in their business models?

Ricardo Garcia:  “We must assume that Internationalization is not an option, it is a necessity. In the current situation, and regardless of the uncertainties that we are all aware that our business fabric has, we consider that a company that promotes, supports and defines internationalization in its strategic plan as an essential line, we are fully convinced that they are companies that are going to become much more resilient, more efficient and more profitable, from the perspective that not everything goes. For many years now at Cajamar we have been advocating the triple bottom line: not only the economic balance, but we need an environmental balance and a social balance. 

Companies that are committed to internationalization must assume that they are long, expensive processes and where they will need, above all, that look long term; Think that they are processes that are not simple and where the fundamental thing is not only the person, the professional, but also what some of us define as collaboration. Internationalization is a long and expensive process but In the long run, it generates enough profits so that the decision that the company has made is a correct one.".