MANS is a social initiative dedicated to the production, processing and packaging of organic fruit and vegetables, as well as their
marketing through supermarket chains. The mission of MANS is twofold: to generate jobs for people with difficulties, especially
young people at risk of social exclusion, and to accompany them socially and in their integration into the labour market; and to
reinforce and promote organic farming of proximity, facilitating a channel for their marketing.
Its activity is focused on the Catalan area, with two agricultural production centres in Sant Fruitós de Bages and Palafolls, a
packaging and logistics centre in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, and a packaging plant for nuts in Tarragona.
The cooperative is made up of three social entities: Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, which promotes the project, the Fundació El
Molí d’en Puigvert, dedicated to caring for people with mental disorders, and the Fundació Topromi of Tarragona, which helps
people with learning disabilities and who are at risk of social exclusion.
“As a social cooperative, we work mainly with young people who struggle to access the world of work, young people with few opportunities who come
from risk environments and who, in many cases, have left school early”. They are young people from complex family environments, families with personal
shortcomings or with few economic resources who receive follow-up from social services; and also young immigrants who lack a family network in the
country and who, in many cases, have gone through juvenile institutions, looking for an opportunity not to fall into situations of marginalisation.
To increase production capacity, MANS currently has an agreement with 35 farmers who belong to its network of associated farmers, all of whom have
organic certification and most of which are located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Baix Llobregat, Vallés, Maresme and Pla de Bages). Currently 66%
of all products marketed are local (less than 300 km).
Product: Its main products are seasonal and local fruit and vegetables, packaged in an attractive and biodegradable format, and nuts. In addition, MANS has
a range of prepared food and fruit juices to use up seasonal production surpluses. The MANS product can be found in the Bon Preu-Esclat, Condis, Carrefour
and ALDI supermarkets under the brands MANS, ECOOO, AgroSocials or GutBio.
Social and environmental commitment: The work in the cooperative, complemented by training actions, facilitates the social and occupational integration
of people at risk of social exclusion. This task is carried out in collaboration with different public and private resources in what makes up a true network. The
associated farmers also benefit socially by providing them with a marketing channel, with production planning and transparent sales commitment, as this
improves the viability of their farms.
MANS has developed the first biodegradable packaging for organic fruit and vegetables in supermarkets. It is one of the most sustainable packaging
solutions at present for fresh products with a compostable tray and a net mesh made mainly of cotton. With this packaging, it it estimated that the use of
more than 5 tonnes of plastic per year will be avoided. This packaging has received the WorldStar Packaging Awards, one of the most important in the world,
and is recognised as the most innovative in the food category and in its packaging process.
An innovative project: Until now, social agriculture initiatives have mainly focused on therapeutic activity but have had limited economic impact and
scalability, and have been heavily subsidised. The MANS initiative incorporates young people into a real and demanding work environment, and into a sector, large-scale distribution, that is highly competitive. We encourage them to complete their training and accompany them on a tailor-made programme. We
do this in collaboration with different public and private resources (town halls, social entities, companies) in what makes up a true network.
This project also puts a lot of emphasis on providing a commercial solution for the productions of the social entities that make up MANS and the producers
associated with the initiative. In this respect, commercialisation is the economic driver of this initiative. MANS is oriented towards the large-scale distribution
channel with the aim of generating the maximum volume of sales and, therefore, having the greatest impact on jobs.
In 2014, when the cooperative started its activity, the big supermarket chains started to introduce organic fruits and vegetables into their product offer
in Spain. At that time, a commercial relationship (initially exclusive) with the Bon Preu chain began. Since then, we have expanded the number of clients,
incorporating the Condis chain, Aldi and Carrefour.
Thanks to the entrepreneurial and innovative nature of the project, we have been recognised through receiving the Entrepreneurial Initiative in the 2019
Food of Spain Awards (Alimentos de España) organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

ThermoSeed is a unique biological method for treating seeds to remove seed-borne infections. The method, developed by
Lantmännen, reduces the need for pesticides within agriculture, benefiting the environment and promoting biodiversity as
well as reducing costs for the farmer. The method has become widespread and has made a huge impact globally and will be
crucial for farming of the future.
Environmental value creation – disruptive innovation minimizing the use of chemicals in the agricultural sector.
Lantmännen is a farmer cooperative and Northern Europe’s leader in agriculture, machinery, bioenergy and food products.
We are owned by 20,000 Swedish farmers, we have operations throughout the grain value chain, 10,000 employees in over 20
countries and an annual turnover of 5 billion EUR. For a long time, we have been investing up to 30 million EUR annually in
research and development and we have our own research foundation – working closely with our owners, the industry as well as academia. Our research
efforts will play a key role in the transition to farming of the future – our vision and roadmap toward more sustainable farming by 2050. ThermoSeed, a
unique innovation in the area of agricultural inputs, has been an important step toward reaching our vision.

“Care4Growing” is a multifunctional platform centred around data gathering and digitalisation that will transform the whole
sector and provide new analytical capabilities that enable cooperatives and their members to optimise their performance in
the supply chain.
As a first step on the digital roadmap, Care4Growing developed a handy digital tool, a virtual assistant, to help the fruit and
vegetable producer on their journey from sowing and growing through to harvesting and delivery at the producer organisation
(PO). In total, 100 functionalities, both existing and new services, were identified to optimise the production process. The overall
objective of this tool is to help the grower to collect the necessary information for their production facility, to give them a 360°
overview of their crops and thus optimise their total production process with higher efficiency being the main goal.
The management of this high-quality information will also form the basis of the producer’s pursuit of better quality and an optimal marketing of produce
through the producer organisations. The possibility to use big data analyses and artificial intelligence on the gathered production data will provide new
insights into the fruit and vegetable production process and will increase the profitability as a whole.

Camara Arrossera del Montsià have created ORYZITE, a plastic substitute made from rice husks.
This new material is the result of a circular economy project and the valorisation of rice by-products after more 10 years of
research and product development.
The main by-product of rice is the rice husk and thanks to our circular economy project, we have been able to reconvert the rice
husk into a new material that replaces plastic. We say that the more kilogrammes of Oryzite you put on the market, the less
kilogrammes of plastic you release into the environment, and in doing so reduce the carbon footprint.
The production of Oryzite, which is carried out in the same plant where Cámara Arrocera del Montsià processes the rice, has multiple benefits such as
reducing CO2, or reducing the carbon footprint and energy consumption. Thus, the rice husk has become a very useful and innovative component, giving
rise to Oryzite as a clear example of circular economy: it uses the least amount of resources and produces the least waste. This revolutionary material will
replace plastic in products from various industries such as automotive, logistics, packaging or furniture.
As a result of the cooperative’s commitment to the environment and the collaboration with Iban Ganduxé, we have been able to reclaim the value of a
by-product such as rice husks. We are working on a new strategic project for the cooperative that is going to add value to a basic product such as rice and
therefore provide better results. In addition, with the creation of Oryzite we have managed to bring an innovation from the primary sector to the industrial
sector, generating great competitive advantages for this sector too. ‘’We know and have proven that thanks to the use of Oryzite as a substitute for plastic
in industrial processes, improvements in productivity, energy consumption and raw material costs are achieved’’.
This innovation has already been accepted by actors in the industrial sector such as SEAT, NUPIK INTERNATIONAL, ROCA or NUPSUS, among other large
multinational companies that also have circular economy projects and sustainable improvements as part of their strategic plans. These companies see
ORYZITE as a present and future solution to make their production plants more sustainable.
As required, we have provided the following links to videos where everybody can see the main results and uses of Oryzite.