ASOCIACION DE ORGANIZACIONES DE PRODUCTORES DE FRUTAS Y HORTALIZAS DE ALMERIA

Their core work

COEXPHAL is the association of fruit and vegetable producer organizations in Almería, one of Europe's most intensive horticultural regions. They represent growers in the greenhouse-heavy Almería corridor, focusing on sustainable production, supply chain coordination, and technology adoption for fresh produce. In H2020, they bring real-world farming networks and producer cooperatives into EU research, serving as a demonstration and validation ground for smart farming, integrated pest management, and sustainable value chain innovations. Their role bridges the gap between research outputs and on-farm adoption across fruits, vegetables, and horticultural crops.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 phase (2017–2018), COEXPHAL focused on digital transformation — IoT deployment, smart farming pilots, and data-driven precision agriculture through projects like IoF2020. By 2020 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward sustainability, agroecological practices, and value chain restructuring, as seen in CO-FRESH and IPMWORKS. The move from "technology adoption" to "sustainable systems and co-creation" mirrors the broader EU Green Deal influence on agri-food research priorities.

COEXPHAL is moving from technology-first digital farming toward sustainability-driven value chain transformation, making them a strong fit for Farm-to-Fork and Green Deal aligned projects.

How they like to work

COEXPHAL never coordinates projects — they join as participant (3 projects) or third party (2 projects), contributing real-world producer networks and demonstration capacity rather than research leadership. They operate in large consortia (188 unique partners across 27 countries), suggesting they are comfortable in major multi-actor projects but don't drive the research agenda. Their value to a consortium is practical: access to Almería's concentrated greenhouse farming ecosystem and producer cooperatives for validation and demonstration.

With 188 unique consortium partners across 27 countries, COEXPHAL has a broad European network built through large-scale demonstration and innovation projects. Their connections span research institutions, farm advisory services, and agri-food companies across the EU.

What sets them apart

Almería is Europe's largest concentration of greenhouse horticulture — the so-called "sea of plastic" producing a significant share of Europe's winter fruits and vegetables. COEXPHAL gives consortium partners direct access to this massive, real-world testbed of intensive horticultural production. Few other organizations can offer such scale for demonstrating and validating agri-food innovations in a controlled yet commercially active environment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CO-FRESH
  Largest funding (EUR 375,750) and most strategically aligned with their core mission — co-creating sustainable fruit and vegetable value chains across Europe.
• IoF2020
  One of the EU's flagship IoT-in-agriculture large-scale pilots, giving COEXPHAL early exposure to precision farming technologies at scale.
• IPMWORKS
  Signals their evolution toward agroecology and integrated pest management — a growing priority for European horticulture under the Green Deal.