Grupo Costa will install an agri-food center in Villamayor with 469 million and 3,200 jobs

The Costa Group will invest 469 million euros in a new agri-food center in the Zaragoza town of Villamayor de Gállego. According to forecasts, it will serve to generate 3,200 direct jobs , around 2,000 indirect and 200 specific to the construction sector to build this space, which will extend over 155 hectares. It is called Clave (Agri-Food Logistics Center of the Ebro Valley) and is emerging as one of the most ambitious projects of the Government of Aragon both for meat production and in the branch of biotechnology, although there are still no specific deadlines for its completion. start up.

Those in charge of presenting it were the company’s CEO, Jorge Costa, and the Aragonese president Jorge Azcón. As detailed, in the first phase the poultry meat plant and a biotechnology campus will be built . The second will focus on pork . Likewise, Grupo Costa will install a new corporate headquarters on the aforementioned land, between the Malpica Industrial Estate and the A-2. It is a location, the head of the Executive has assured, that benefits the central province but also that of Huesca, and more specifically bordering regions such as Los Monegros.

A BIOTECHNOLOGICAL CAMPUS, FACILITIES FOR POULTRY AND SWINE ACTIVITIES AND THE GROUP’S CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS

Specifically, the initial phase first contemplates the promotion of this campus, “a center that aspires to become a national reference and the implementation of processes based on the circular economy.” It will include research and development centers based on lines of collaboration with universities and the objective is to create patents and projects that introduce qualitative and quantitative improvements in both the agri-food and biopharmaceutical sectors.

Along with this, the aforementioned facilities for poultry products will be deployed in the first stage, with a transformation and packaging center; the development of the corporate headquarters , from where the administrative management of the entire group will be centralized; and a logistics center of 20,000 square meters .

For its part, the second will focus on spaces for  pigs. It includes its respective processing and packaging point, a frozen food plant, another for preparing prepared meals, and a feed factory with the capacity to produce two million kilos per day.

THE URBAN PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROCEDURES WOULD BE COMPLETED IN LESS THAN A YEAR

Once the urban planning and environmental procedures have been completed, which they intend to shorten but initially aim for more than a year, each phase could be extended up to five , although for now they are simple estimates. In any case, the commitment is clear, as Costa has highlighted, and that is that if it were possible “they would have started yesterday.” “It is courage, commitment, the union of agribusiness and biotechnology,” he noted.

Thus, the future Villamayor plant will be able to accommodate activities that already occur in Fraga , such as the production of heparin, feed, organic fertilizers or the investigation of new patents for the pharmaceutical industry. All this without leaving aside all the processes related to meat treatments, from the arrival of the animal to packaging and distribution to different parts of the country or abroad.

“Costa’s track record gives security,” said Azcón, who recalled that they are “the fourth national group in the sector . ” Along with the head of the Executive were the second vice president and Minister of Economy, Mar Vaquero, and those responsible for Finance and Agriculture, Roberto Bermúdez de Castro and Ángel Samper. Not in vain, the regional leader has highlighted the collaboration of all areas of the Government, which approved this Wednesday in Council the Declaration of General Interest (DIGA).