Spain: CTAEX presents “Cooperating to Innovate”

CTAEX presents the documentary “Cooperating to Innovate: The Story of Extremadura’s Tomato Industry”

The 59-minute documentary traces 75 years of the sector’s development through the people who shaped it and shows how Extremadura has come to account for around 70% of Spain’s processing tomato production.

As the processing tomato campaign enters its final stages, CTAEX is making the documentary “Cooperating to Innovate: The Story of Extremadura’s Tomato Industry” available to the public. The film can be watched in full on CTAEX’s YouTube channel and aims to bring the history of one of Extremadura’s most important agro-industrial sectors to a wider audience.

The timing of its release is no coincidence. During these months, thousands of hectares of crops, farmers, cooperatives, producer organisations and processing companies work in coordination on a campaign that generates a significant share of the region’s agro-industrial activity every year.

In 2025, Extremadura produced 1.684 billion kilograms of processing tomatoes across more than 20,200 hectares, accounting for 70.16% of Spain’s total production.

A 75-year history

The documentary retraces a journey that began in the mid-20th century with the first processing plants. It explores the impact of the Badajoz Plan, the expansion of irrigated agriculture, the growth of processing factories, the development of cooperatives and producer organisations and, subsequently, the integration of research, technology and new forms of cooperation between growers and industry.

As early as 1951, a tomato processing plant was already operating in Montijo. By 1975, there were 19 canning factories within the area covered by the Badajoz Plan, with a combined processing capacity of more than 390,000 tonnes.

The people behind the story

The film tells this story through people who have been directly involved in the sector’s development. Farmers, cooperative representatives, business leaders, technicians and researchers share their personal experiences of how Extremadura’s current tomato production model took shape.

Among them are Manuel Vázquez Gimón, founder of Grupo CONESA; Domingo Fernández Sánchez, founder of Acopaex, Tomates del Guadiana and Apis; Juan Puerto Frías, founder of TOMALIA; and Carmen Moreno Vargas, director of Cooperativas Agroalimentarias Extremadura.

Also taking part is Fernando Sanromán Plaza, Head of Agricultural Production at AGRAZ, part of Grupo CONESA, and chairman of the Tomato Committee at the time of filming. He explains the role of this body in coordinating growers and processors, as well as in contracting, quality management and the reception of raw material.

They are joined by Eduardo José Fernández López, Director of APIS; José María Monteagudo Cebrián, ACOREX’s first director; José María Sánchez Quirós, associated with CASAT; Ramón de Arcos Nieto, associated with ACOREX, where he served as Deputy Director; Carmen González Ramos, Lorena Zajara Serrano, Mª José Riballo Ruiz-Roso, Rubén Sánchez Herrero and José Luis Llerena Ruiz, who provide insights from the fields of research and technology transfer.

CTAEX and tomatoes: from field to factory

The documentary also highlights the work CTAEX has carried out over the past 25 years in support of the entire tomato value chain.

In the field, the centre works on areas including varieties and rootstocks, irrigation, crop nutrition, plant health, biostimulation, climate-change adaptation, precision agriculture, digitalisation, productivity and sustainability.

In the processing industry, its work focuses on the development of new products and formulations, process optimisation, by-product valorisation, the circular economy, energy efficiency, packaging and shelf life.

This is complemented by laboratory activities covering physicochemical analysis, microbiology, food safety, traceability, authenticity and quality control, as well as technical support for the Tomato Committee through common protocols, self-monitoring procedures and quality supervision when raw material is received.

A sector looking to the future

“Cooperating to Innovate” also addresses the challenges that will shape the sector’s future competitiveness: water, climate change, productivity, costs, sustainability, digitalisation, energy efficiency, logistics, further processing and the creation of greater added value in Extremadura.

The film was produced by CTAEX and the Mórrimer Cultural Association and directed by Ángel Hernández García, Pedro Jesús Martín Millán and José Luis Llerena Ruiz.

By making the documentary freely available, CTAEX aims to recognise the several generations who have helped build one of Extremadura’s major agro-industrial value chains and to bring this story to a wider audience at a time when tomatoes are filling the region’s fields, roads and processing plants.

Watch the documentary: CTAEX – Cooperating to Innovate: The Story of Extremadura’s Tomato Industry