Share
100% funded by 133 investors
Prickly Pears
Serpa, PT
instalment
monthly
term
5 years
yearly interest
5.8%
risk rating
C+
Prickly pear cooperative funding.
Description
The Cooperative Opuntias Alentejo was founded in 2019 with the goal of fomenting agriculture and livestock in Serpa, with a special focus on the cultivation, transformation, and trade of prickly pears and its derivatives – palms and flowers.
This investment will be used to buy essential equipment for the Cooperative’s operation and for the launch of the first prickly pear marketing and trade campaign, happening soon. Therefore, the money will be used in the following:
- Acquisition of a refrigerator, for the fruits conservation, until they are distributed;
- Acquisition of scales and lifts;
- Acquisition of packaging, crates, and other equipment, necessary for transportation.
The Impact
The Cooperative’s work will have a very positive environmental and social impact :
- Production sustainability: even though prickly pears are one of the most significant and emerging wild plants with a significant number of producers, selling the whole production has been challenging due to the lack of scale of each individual producer. With promoters owning on average a land of around 1,5ha, they lack the financial capacity to buy the necessary equipment to prepare the fruit to be sold. With the cooperative’s creation, the bought equipment will be shared by everyone, hence increasing the quantity of fruit sold.
- Increased cultivation area, and better quality of the products: with the support of the cooperative, the revenue from all the cooperators will increase, allowing them to increase the cultivation area. Additionally, all the promoters can learn from each other, guaranteeing the products quality and the production’s sustainability.
- Valuation of the local production and positive economic impact on the region: the cooperative operation is in Vale do Poço, a small village with only 50 inhabitants in the interior of Alentejo. By benefiting the local commerce and restaurants, the cooperative will be able to attract more people to a region that suffers from desertification, having a positive economic impact on the region.
- More jobs: in a region where agriculture is the main activity, by increasing production and revenue, more jobs will be made available contributing to reducing the interior desertification.
Impact Indicators
7
people impacted
Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals
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Financial viability
The revenue obtained with this campaign will be used to pay for the loan instalments. During the first year, the promoter predicts to sell the whole production, about 20 tons of fruit.
Download Key Investment Information Sheet
Guarantees
This project is guaranteed with the pledge of the equipment installed.
The Promoter
About OpuntiasAlentejo, Crl
Cooperativa OpuntiasAlentejo, Crl. is headquartered in Serpa and operates in a small town called Vale do Poço, both in Alentejo. Founded in 2019, the cooperative is the result of the union of several prickly pears producers. Its main goal is to generate enough business scale to guarantee the whole production is sold. On top of this, by joining efforts to market the products and by sharing equipment, its members will be able to reduce costs.
Its main goal is to promote local agriculture, mainly through the cultivation of prickly pears, its cultivation, transformation, and marketing. Tomé Panazeite, an agronomist engineer with over 30 years of experience, is a founding member and the main responsible for the organization.
Its members chose to be in Vale do Paço due to the following:
- The town used to be a business hub in the past;
- It is a deprived area in the interior of Alentejo;
- It is a central location for all the members;
- It has the potential to create jobs, in a place where they are needed.
The cooperative has the following functions:
- Acquisition of the necessary equipment for the fruit exploration and trade to be used by all the cooperative’s members.
- Sharing of rural properties to keep the products (before and after transformation) between the members.
- Transformation, packaging, and marketing of the fruits and their derivatives.
- Organization of fairs, congresses, and other events.
Besides the mentioned functions, the cooperative will train its members so that they can opt for sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture methods.
Business Model
The main function of the cooperative is to guarantee that the whole production of its members is sold. The products will be mainly sold to large retailers and supermarkets, but also to small retailers, local merchants, directly to consumers, namely in national and international fairs, or even online.
Active since
2019
Fiscal country
PT
Operating In
Serpa
Industry
Agriculture
Number of Goparity Loans
1
Women Shareholders
No
Updates
2025-11-17
The project has been successfully implemented
The promoter Cooperative Opuntias Alentejo has successfully implemented the project, by purchasing a refrigerator and other equipment that are essential to the cooperative’s work.
The cooperative has 16 members, and also purchases prickly pears from other producers from the region to sell the products. The whole organization sells 18 to 20 tons of prickly pears every year.
The cooperative is a producers’ organization which helps farmers reduce transaction costs, assists in the processing and marketing of their products, strengthening farmers' collective bargaining power.
2025-10-01
Project End
This project has successfully reached its payments plan maturity. All investors have received their full capital invested and interest. Nevertheless, its impact will keep growing for many more years!
2020-08-20
First payment
First instalment was paid to all the investors
2020-07-20
100% funded
105 investors successfully raised 15.000€
2020-07-15
Open for investment
2020-07-10
Project Photographs
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