Planas highlights the "essential role" of cooperatives in the wine sector

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has highlighted this Monday the "essential role" that the cooperative model plays in the development of the powerful Spanish wine sector and, by extension, in the social and economic fabric of the rural environment. In this regard, the minister, during the inauguration of the new facilities of Bodegas Cuatro Rayas, in La Seca (Valladolid) which this year celebrates its 90th anniversary, recalled that cooperatives produce "two-thirds of the grapes for vinification and wine". According to Planas, historic cooperatives like this "allow the sector to be organized and structured, generate greater added value for producers and more muscle to make investments in innovation, promotion or adaptation to changes". Cuatro Rayas is the oldest of those recognized in Castilla y León, has 300 members who cultivate 2,500 hectares of vineyards in 30 localities of the provinces of Valladolid and Segovia, and produces 18 million bottles a ...