Jorge Costa: "Spanish flesh is an example to follow in quality and animal welfare" :: kpmg - Iberian press

ARMANDO HUERTA. BARBASTRO (HUESCA)– Acaban de comprar, este mismo mes, la empresa Juan Luna, referente en loncheado y snacks de queso y carne. Un paso más para avanzar en verticalización...

- Yes. It is a company that complements us very well.Above all, in the industrial part, since it allows us to be more flexible in the formats, with the best machines and professionals.This purchase also complements us in export and allows us to enter a new range of product in which we were not, cheese.

– Una estrategia de adquisiciones para verticalizar que han intensificado en los últimos años...

- In a few years we have gone from being a company specialized in pigs to a food company.We verticalize so that the product that reaches the final consumer is natural, which is the main benefit of our control "from the field to the table".

– Comenzaron esta hoja de ruta con la compra de las antiguas Cárnicas Toni Josep, en 2016, que les aportó un matadero y una sala de despiece...

- This was the beginning of verticalization.Before we were farmers, but with the purchase of this company, today Costa Food Meat, we began to form an integrated chain.From there, we have continued verticalized.In 2017 we bought Casademont;In 2018, Villar Industrias;In 2019, sausage of the nuncia;In 2020, 50% of A notrano group;In 2021, Roler and the Rioja joy ...

– ¿Cómo les ha ido en la pandemia? Al sector agroalimentario, en general, bien...

- Our professionals have made a very big effort to get supermarkets to be supplied with meat products.I thank you because we have had to multiply and make very long days to supply meat to the entire sector of the great distribution.

– ¿Cuál ha sido la facturación?

- 2020 was a good year.In 2021 we have increased billing, from 1,500 million to 1,750.However, in the pig sector something more has been suffered for the turbulence of foreign markets.

– ¿Qué piensa cuando ve que se demoniza el consumo de carne?

- The meat sector has been making a very important effort to improve animal welfare parameters, food quality and food safety, to get meat not a luxury within reach of a few.This effort has placed us among the main world references.

– El ministro de Consumo habló en una reciente entrevista en The Guardian de macrogranjas y las asoció a peor calidad, contaminación y maltrato animal.

- In our case, we are from a rural area, of Fraga, here in Huesca, and we are the first interested in ensuring animal well -being and environmental, social and economic sustainability in our territory.Our integrated farms are based on the family model, we listen to the owners, who are the ones who know the animal best.Spanish meat companies are European leaders.We are selling to everyone and we are an example to follow in Europe in relation to quality guarantees and certifications of animal welfare.

– Es un sector muy regulado...

- It is very regulated.We are the second country of the European Union both in production and export, just behind Germany. And this, I assure you, it is not done offering meat of poor quality or mistreating animals.To be able to export to a country they come to authorize and audit you.If we did it wrong, we would not export anything, they would not buy us.And yet, we are carrying Spanish food products to everyone with the highest quality standards.And they audit and authorize not only countries, at the government level, but also the large distribution companies.

– Parte de la polémica se focaliza en el tamaño de las granjas...

Jorge Costa:

- In this regard, everything is regulated by European legislation, which is the most demanding in the world, and in Spain it is fulfilled.In our farms, very demanding criteria of animal welfare are also applied.Grupo Costa was the first Spanish White pig meat in obtaining the AENOR Certificate of Animal Welfare in its farms, slaughterhouses, exploded rooms and elaboration factories.

– En la órbita de Grupo Costa hay unas 1.300 granjas...

- Correct.We are farmers, we work in the field and we are the first interested in everything is done well, including family conciliation.Before, when only one family worked on a farm, they worked Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas, Reyes.You couldn't rotate.We promote swine facilities of 10-15 people in which you can rotate and have, of course, rest and vacation, favoring the labor conciliation of our farmers.

– ¿Y en qué se concreta su compromiso con la sostenibilidad?

- We are very mentalized.We have been the first company in the sector that has taken a patent to replace 90% of the recyclable cardboard plastic.We are investing a lot of money, among other things, in sustainability policies for plastic reduction, the minimization of water consumption, energy efficiency, green energy, self -consumption, design design based on circular economy, etc.

– Con la compra de Juan Luna, el grupo ronda los 5.000 empleados, la mayor parte en municipios muy pequeños.¿En qué medida su s actividades ayudan a mitigar el problema de la despoblación?

- 60% of our employees work in villages of less than 5,000 inhabitants and help to set population.Before it seemed that in rural areas only old people could stay and that young people wanted to go to the capitals.Now, a lot of young and very prepared population is returning to the rural environment to carry farms, feed factories, meat industries, etc.We have many chemicals, agronomists, computer, veterinarians, ... and life is very well earned.Among our objectives is the settlement of the territory by enhancing quality use and opportunities in the rural environment.

- How much exports Costa Grupo?

- Around 65% of our global production.We are, in total, in 107 countries.

– ¿Y cuáles son sus principales mercados internacionales? ¿dónde creen que pueden aún crecer?

- We are, above all, in Europe, in Asia and in South America, which are consolidated markets in which we are very present.And in the future, we look towards the African continent and towards India, where there will be a lot of growth and where we want to be present in the medium term.

– Además de integración vertical e internacionalización, con usted al frente, se ha impulsado la diversificación. Ya no están solo en el sector cárnico; tienen vitivinícola, hoteles, renovables, inmobiliario,...

- With the support of my family and my work team, we have opened lines of activities in which we were not, and we have promoted those that, in addition to the meat, already existed in Costa Group such as phytosanitary products (Key plant health) andThe automotive.

– Esta triple estrategia de integración, exportación y diversificación es la que ha hecho posible el gran crecimiento de la empresa en los últimos doce años, desde que estás al frente, ¿correcto?

- In 2009 the company invoiced 120 million and had 80 employees.The year 2021 we closed it at 1,750 million billing and with almost 5,000 people on the squad.

– Esta entrevista se realiza en Barbastro, en las instalaciones de la Bodega Sommos, ¿cuál es la estrategia de la compañía en el sector vitivinícola?

- We are very rooted to this land, to Aragon.And sometimes there are things that are done not only with vision but also with heart.We want to make quality wines that promote the Aragon brand in Spain and in the world.Here, in Barbastro, in a winery that is also an architectural reference, we have 450 hectares of vineyard of the D.O.Somontano

– Quieren llevar el nombre de Aragón por todo el mundo, ¿a cuántos países exportan el vino?

- We already export to 30 countries.We are promoting export - which reaches 30% of production - and innovation.We want to produce wines from the D.O.Somontano every time of greater quality and we want to get new wines.We are immersed in several R&D projects.

– El turismo lo ha pasado mucho peor que la agroalimentación en pandemia. Han creado también el sello Sommos Hoteles, ¿cómo les va en este nuevo sector?

- With the pandemic we had to close, but when they let us reopen we tried to recover the lost terrain and we are happy.We have two hotels in the Benasque Valley, in the Aragonese Pyrenees, which has attractiveness throughout the year, and it has done very well during the months that we have been able to be open in 2021. We were not in this sector;We started in 2017 and we had to learn.

– También han entrado en la gestión inmobiliaria, en la promoción y construcción de viviendas...

- Yes. With double emme.We have undertaken this business with caution and we are developing promotions here, in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

– Concesionarios de coches. Empezaron hace mucho tiempo, pero le han dado un renovado impulso en los últimos años...

- We already have nine car dealers and market brands such as Volvo, Nissan, Kia, Isuzu, Suzuki or Maxus.

– Pandemia, falta de suministros. ¿No terminan de despegar las matriculaciones?

- If cars do not arrive because of the current supply crisis, you can always enhance occasion vehicles.I always say that, apart from complaining, what we have to do is find solutions.

Personally

Fines de semana en plan familiar

Jorge Costa is the third of seven brothers.His childhood is memories of a town in Huesca called Fraga, where he was born.He grew up in a rural environment, closely linked to the activity of Piegos Costa, the cereal sale company that his father founded in 1966. During a pleasant conversation images of when, as a child, some summer to harvestand collect fruit.He remembers with straw hat and the skin reddened by the sun, talking with the farmers and weighing with the Roman in the middle of a transfer of trailers.

He has raised in a very entrepreneurial family and this vocation for business has lived it as a child.

Now, older, with so much work, reserve weekends for your wife and children.Next to them he likes to get out of the beach and mountain, and share family meals.Sometimes they will also see the matches of the soccer and basketball teams sponsored by the company.

En cifras:

Data: 2021