Within the social cooperative Actua, an initiative emerged five years ago that turns the lack of agricultural generational change into an opportunity to help integrate people at risk of social exclusion into the world of work. This project in which both parties win is called Coop-era and is led by Christian Buono and Adrià Ramó.
“The first harvest took place in 2019 and, although we continue to help small farmers and the Covides wine and cava cooperative during the grape harvest season, Coop-era now cultivates its own lands and markets its own food,” he explains. Good. Coop-era’s latest product is a collection of four wines, with whose marketing the project coordinators hope to “stop depending so much on public aid,” in the words of Buono. The wines have been possible thanks to the collaboration of four small producers in the territory.
They employ, above all, young people from African countries, to whom they not only offer a job for a year, but also help them adapt to fit into the world of work. They work under the direction of a young farmer from the area who combines the cultivation of his farms with Coop-era. Young people’s contracts are made through programs financed by the Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya.
The lands, located in the Alt and Baix Penedès regions, are not owned, but are leased to owners who were not using them, either due to lack of generational change or because they are small or remote. Ordal peaches, vineyards, olive trees and orchards are grown there. The combination of all these crops allows them to have work throughout the year.
They sell them directly under their own brand through the Sant Pau d’Ordal market and the Actua cooperative. In addition, they also sell them in restaurants in the area. Food that cannot be sold or that does not meet market standards is sent to the Espigoladors Foundation and the Vilafranca Solidarity Pantry, in order to avoid food waste.
The challenge now is to make the project profitable on its own, always applying reinvestment and self-capitalization criteria within the social and solidarity economy.
