Mercadona’s snack supplier, Grupo Ibersnacks, presented yesterday in the Valladolid town of Medina Del Campo its new plant for the production of corn products, Agromaíz, and its development and Improvement Center.
The president of the firm defined the latter as “a corner of thinking” with which they will try to develop “the best french fries in the world”. With a total investment of seven million euros, three and a half for each of the facilities, and have led to the creation of 30 jobs, with the forecast to increase up to fifty.
A stake of the company for the villa which is expected to increase in the next year, after Eguía announced that in 2016, the company expects a new plant dedicated to the recovery of potato, after the calibration procedure, for which estimated a cost of close to two million euros and will involve the incorporation of fifteen other workers.
“We will only use perfect potato, which meets all the quality conditions that we want our product to have. That will cause the need to contract fifteen thousand more tons of potato a year in Castilla y León, until reaching 75,000 tons”, said the president of the firm,before noting that the new waste processing plant will open two new business lines: animal feed and other human feed, focused on flours for other processes.
Eight out of ten bags . The Minister of Agriculture and livestock, Milagros Marcos, participated in the inauguration of the new facilities, and noted that Castilla y León produces 40 percent of the National Potato, dedicating about 21,000 hectares to its cultivation. “3,400 farmers linked to the processing industry work in the sector, and it generates an economic value of 130 million euros a year for the community, but we have to continue working to make it complete success.
“Out of ten bags of french fries sold in Spain, eight come from Castilla y León. We have a significant volume of production, but now we have to ensure that the raw material for the most part is also from the community,” added the minister.
On the other hand, the development and Improvement Center occupies 800 square meters distributed over two floors, hosting spaces for training and market surveillance, and laboratory equipment and study of industrial processes. It also has state-of-the-art technology for processing cereal extrusion, potato frying and vegetable products.
Sourcediario De Burgos
