What is behind the success of the largest trading company in Spain and Europe of avocado and mango? The “TROPS Gene”
“The trading company Trops has opened in Motril its fifth collecting center”. “Trops increases its business with the absorption of 302 farmers to its list of associates”. “Trops launches an offer of employment to cover 500 jobs for the mango” … And so, it continues. These are just some of the latest news concerning Trops, the National and European leader in the production of mango and avocados.
At the end of the 70´s, five farmers of Axarquía, Málaga, decided to start selling their products directly without intermediaries.
That was the beginning of the Trops gene, a Company that today has over 3.000 associated farmers in seven Spanish provinces as well as in Portugal. And above all it is a co-operative that is the driving force for the whole province. Its headquarters are to be found in Vélez, Málaga.
«TROPS is a project for life»
What is behind the success of the largest trading Company in Spain and Europe of avocados and mangos? What they themselves call the “TROPS Gene”. That which makes them unique and unbeatable. “For all of us that make up the co-operative, the workers, the partners, the farmers … Trops is a Project for life. That is the “TROPS Gene”, explains Enrique Colilles, the CEO.
Madavi, with the team of TROPS
Madavi, the YES company, has worked with them in the process of defining the principles of this gene and also its purpose. Principles such as confidence; collective ambition; human innovation “to do things in a different way”; to grow by learning and carefully look after each step, in order to offer a better product. “Thanks to the confidence people have in us we are growing as an organization; honesty and transparency are our standards; we grow by learning, because the better professionals we become, the better we shall be able to attend the needs of our clients; we rely on the strengths of others because everyone is good at something”… “On the one hand, the strength that we have from being together allows us to grow as a company; united and with an attitude we undertake to make sure that Trops is at the table of all the consumers in the world”, Enrique Colilles, the CEO, points out.
Madavi has facilitated online sessions with more than 250 people
Madavi has facilitated different sessions (online), in which over 250 people who work for Trops have participated in a very active manner. The farmers and the partners of the co-operative have also been involved.
“For me, Trops is very important; the level of quality, the humane factor; it creates a lot of employment and people are grateful for that”, says Carmen, a farmer and partner of Trops.
“In Trops we carefully look after each step; we carefully monitor the quality of the fruit from the moment it is in the field until the moment it is on the table of the consumer. That is what defines us”, Ana, an employee, (at reception).
“To succeed in a farmer bringing us his yearly harvest is thanks to the confidence he has in us; he trusts our honesty, our transparency, because he knows that all his effort will be rewarded here. It is his work of the whole year; it is like his son, and he cannot give it to just anybody”, Jesús, employee (in Logistics).
And with respect to another of his principles, namely, collective ambition, David, the technical director, says that this principle represents Trops, “the unity and collaboration of everyone – farmers, partners and workers – to make possible a project for the future like this one and which will improve the environment”.
