Girona Fruits

Apples and pears from Bordils

Girona Fruits is a fruit cooperative established in 1966 in Bordils, Girona. It began with a fruit storage and packing center and has since focused on growing, handling, storing, and marketing apples and pears.

Storage and packing facilities

The cooperative's 60,000-square-meter site includes 21,000 square meters of built space, with fruit storage and sorting areas, refrigerated storage, offices, laboratories, locker rooms, and accommodations for seasonal workers. It reports 77,000 cubic meters of cold-storage capacity, about 80% of it using ultra-low-oxygen controlled-atmosphere storage, with the rest using conventional temperature and humidity controls. Electronic graders sort fruit by diameter, weight, and color at a combined rate of 20 metric tons per hour.

Growing standards and certifications

Girona Fruits says it was an early adopter of integrated production methods in Spain. It reports that 90% of its crop met integrated production standards in 2000 and that the share reached 100% in the 2001–2002 season. Its profile lists GlobalG.A.P., Tesco Nurture, and integrated production among its production certifications, and BRC, IFS, and ISO 9002 for storage, packing, and distribution. It also says the PFRB program was approved by Spain's Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in January 2001.

Markets and contact

The cooperative exports to northern European countries. It says exports to that market increased by up to 10% after it adopted the GlobalG.A.P. Good Agricultural Practices Manual.

Address: Crta. Palamós, 7, 17462 Bordils, Girona, Spain. Phone: +34 972 490 002. Email: gironafruits@gironafruits.com. The cooperative is on Instagram and Facebook.