APAEMA is building an agroecological collection, distribution and transformation centre in Mallorca

Nofre Fullana is the technical director of APAEMA, a Mallorcan association with more than 550 members who defend and promote organic farming and agroecology. We talked to him about the APAEMA project Agroecological Collection, Distribution and Transformation Centre of Mallorca, which aims to build and launch a space of these characteristics with the mission of becoming a point of reference and meeting to facilitate logistics and distribution on the island. The project was selected in the third edition of our call From the Field to the Pantry that is aimed at sustainable food transformation and distribution initiatives.

In this time of accompaniment, the most bureaucratic issues have been carried out to make this place a reality, in which APAEMA will bring together all its activity, both that of the new center and that of the two collective workshops that the association already has. To inspire other projects ahead of this year’s Del Campo a la Despensa call , we spoke with Nofre Fullana, APAEMA’s technical director.

Why did you decide to submit the APAEMA collection center project to the call for Del Campo a la Despensa of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation?

Our project fit perfectly with the call. We had had a previous experience with this call presenting the S’Obrador project, a collective workshop of vegetable producers, which made us know first-hand the facilities and closeness with which the Foundation manages its support for projects like ours. For entities like ours, this type of support is essential to be able to launch transformative projects of this type, with a real impact on the territory.

With Del Campo a la Despensa , the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation contributes to the scaling up of projects like this. How has the project evolved and what has this support given you?

The project is still in an initial phase, finalizing all technical and legal issues so that it can soon become a reality. The fact that it intends to be a benchmark project, of great magnitude in every sense, requires great care to be taken of the details and aspects to be taken into account. While we are waiting to obtain the necessary permits, we have focused in the last year on working side by side with the architect and the engineer who are drawing the plans of the buildings that will make up the center, as well as with the producers who will make use of this and other actors involved.

Apart from the economic support, the support provided by the Foundation to the selected projects is very useful to be able, first, to feel that you are not alone in the construction of alternatives based on people and the territory, and in the necessary agroecological transition, which is part of a set of entities with similar values and lines of work. Second, the support of the Foundation provides the projects with essential tools and training to improve their development.

In the near future you will be able to see the center physically built, how will this space help transform the local food system?

The Agroecological Collection, Distribution and Transformation Centre of Mallorca aims to be a meeting point from which to carry out easier and more efficient logistics and distribution to supply more and better consumers such as school canteens, shops, supermarkets and hotels. This part will be managed by the cooperative Pagesos Ecològics de Mallorca. The relocation of the two workshops will create synergies between the logistics centre and these industries, improving process efficiency and reducing food waste. The centre will be a concentration of the activity and impact carried out by APAEMA, as well as training, research, technical advice carried out, among others. It is, in short, an essential infrastructure to achieve the long-awaited leap in agroecological scale and the transition to a more sustainable food supply model for our island.

APAEMA also has two collective workshops, how will you benefit when the center is built?

APAEMA has S’Obrador, a collective vegetable preserves workshop, and a meat workshop that became a kitchen-workshop a year ago to offer catering services with 100% ecolocal products from our partners. When it is ready, the two workshops will move to the new centre, which will mean an improvement in every way for these two spaces/projects: expansion of the space for processing, improvement in the management of incoming and outgoing product, storage of stock, increased visibility of these projects and their impact, etc.

How will the 550 people associated with APAEMA benefit from the construction of the collection center? Will it benefit other agents in the territory?

Our production companies will have a logistics centre where they can concentrate their offer, organise temporary storage of certain foods, and from there, distribute them to the different points of consumption. This centre will be the seed to implement a collective distribution that frees, even partially, our partners from the burden of this part of the food chain. It will be easy for them to expand their contact with the tolling service offered by the bakery and will save them travel and costs.

However, the social impact that the centre will have on our members and on Mallorcan society must be considered of great relevance, as it will become the headquarters of the association. This will be a meeting point for meeting and celebration, which will have a very positive impact on the relations between organic operators, and between them and consumers, an essential pillar for the progression towards a more sustainable island model.

APAEMA is located on the island of Mallorca. What challenges do you encounter with the geographical location to achieve the objectives of the project?

Being an island is both a challenge and an advantage. The challenge lies in dealing with the extra costs that insularity entails, which fully affect our agricultural activity. Also dealing with competition from improper uses of rural land, such as holiday homes and photovoltaic installations, in a territorial context where the main economy is tourism and the service sector. It is not easy to live in a territory that supports 18 million visitors. The advantage, on the other hand, is that we have geographical dimensions that narrow the distances between production and consumption if we compare ourselves with respect to other regions of the peninsula. Being an island has allowed a certain isolation that has led to a better conservation of traditional techniques and landscapes, local varieties and native breeds. All this makes it possible for us, with will, to leave a privileged place when it comes to moving towards real food sovereignty.

What are the keys for APAEMA to continue growing and consolidating?

APAEMA is an entity that has grown a lot in recent years. We have deployed a wide variety of lines of action and advocacy, both for our members and for other people, including administrations. We are already close to 600 members, many of them involved in the day-to-day running of the association, who actively participate in our projects or who simply take advantage of the services provided: training, technical advice, joint purchases, canning… offered by the committed technical team we have. Based on this context, the keys for APAEMA to continue growing and consolidating is to obtain new stable sources of financing to consolidate the structure built and its impact, reducing economic insecurity and retaining talent in the technical team. Another challenge is to find the formula to maintain that breeding ground that is the association right now, without losing the connection that exists between partners and technical team. Undoubtedly, having our own headquarters and an infrastructure such as the new centre will be key to being able to get where we want to be.

How do you imagine your project in 10 years?

We imagine the center in full activity, with vans of ecological farmers entering and leaving the farm, delivery trucks loading goods to take them to different points of consumption. The collective workshop processing fruit or vegetables used from the logistics centre or that a producer has left hours before in the warehouses. The APAEMA offices with the technical team working, attending to members who come to ask for advice, to solve their daily problems with people who are at their disposal. It will be a place to visit for those interested in organic farming, who want to learn through courses or visit the center and the plots of crops on the farm, curious. Or people interested in the food offered by our producers.