The company Azufrera y Fertilizantes Pallarès has invested 11 million euros in new facilities 5,000 square meters, which has meant the creation of 20 jobs.

The Minister of Industry and Tourism of the Government of Spain, Jordi Hereu, visited this afternoon the new plant that the company AFEPASA (Azufrera y Fertilizantes Pallarès S.A.U) has in the Constantí industrial estate, in the town of Constantí (Tarragona), a new facility of 5,000 square meters destined mainly to increase the production capacity of new formulations for agriculture. The minister wanted to see personally this expansion of the AFEPASA facilities, which has involved an investment of nearly 11 million euros and has allowed the creation of around twenty direct jobs.

Until now, the plant had a production capacity of 40,000 tons annually. With the definitive start-up of the new plant, AFEPASA's production capacity increases by 8,000 tons per year, an amount that can be in both a granulated and liquid formulation. Furthermore, this expansion of the company, which has been carried out with European and state technology, allows AFEPASA to become the first plant in Europe that can encapsulate active materials or microorganisms at low temperatures with the aim of improving their quality and efficiency in the field.

AFEPASA's new investment has been carried out taking into account all aspects related to sustainability. At this time, all products that leave the plant are 100% organic. In this sense, it is worth noting that last March the company was evaluated by Ecovadis, a platform that analyses a wide range of parameters related to sustainability, awarding it the gold medal. AFEPASA is very aware of the importance of sustainability and the environmental footprint that its activity entails and, for this reason, the development of biostimulants is done with less water consumption and dry transport, which considerably saves CO2 emissions the atmosphere.

The Minister of Industry has been received during his visit to AFEPASA by a delegation from the company headed by the president of the Board of Directors, Ignacio Pallarès, and the vice president, Àlex Pallarès, as well as other members of the board of directors and the management committee, headed by general director Manel Montaño.

The visit consisted of a reception where Ignacio Pallarès briefly presented the company to the head of Industry of the state government. Subsequently, they moved to the quality and microbiology laboratory where the general director, Manel Montaño, explained the R&D&i policy that AFEPASA is carrying out. In fact, the commitment to research and development is fundamental for the company. As a notable fact, it should be noted that the investment in this department is 1 million euros per year with 10% of the staff working directly in it. Thanks to this research and development, AFEPASA has been able to develop the new Dislay and Sultech technologies. The first is associated with the new plant for the development of encapsulated products and the second is associated with the development of biostimulants from sulphur of microbiological origin. The reception continued with a visit to the new plant where they were able to see the entire manufacturing process, from the reception of materials to the control room where the entire process is monitored.

In his statement, the general director of AFEPASA, Manel Montaño, has expressed his gratitude to Minister Jordi Hereu for his visit to the company that is located in the Constantí industrial estate, which he considers an important pole for the productive economy in Camp de Tarragona. “This visit also underlines the commitment of the Pallarès family to this project, with a significant investment that has contributed to job creation, with a team that is close to 100 people, thus strengthening the business fabric of our region,” he said. saying. Finally, Montaño added that “the aid from the administrations, such as that provided by the CDTI, has been essential to convert laboratory projects and pilot plants into production plants like the one the minister visited today” and concluded ensuring that the company is currently on par with top-level multinational companies.

For his part, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has highlighted that AFEPASA is a leading company in the agricultural sector, and has encouraged all agri-food companies in Tarragona, the rest of Catalonia and all of Spain, to present themselves to the second call for PERTE Agri-Food, endowed with 300 million euros in aid, “to continue supporting the transformation, sustainability and modernization of the industry in this sector.” "In the first call, a total of 57 Catalan companies obtained, with their projects, 30% of the aid granted," he added.