Sovena Group is one of the largest Portuguese

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

holding companies, producing

cooking oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil. ...

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

s and

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

. It has its own farmyards in Portugal and several other countries.

History

Sovena was founded in the 1956, in Portugal, as a joint-venture of

Companhia União Fabril The Companhia União Fabril (CUF) was one of the largest and oldest Portuguese conglomerates from the 1930s to 1974 and later a chemical corporation which was by then a part of Grupo José de Mello founded in 1988. After many acquisitions, mergers ...

(CUF), Macedo e Coelho and Sociedade Nacional de Sabões. After the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

of 1974 it was nationalized. Jorge de Mello, an heir of the disbanded CUF conglomerate, rebuilt the company through a new holding called Nutrinveste. In 2004, the Nutrinveste Group sales turnover reached USD 840 million. In 2005, Nutrinveste sold its Compal (fruit juices, beverages,

tomato products The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word , ...

and canned vegetables) and Nutricafés ( coffee products) businesses. The new consolidated Sovena Group was created in 2008. By this time, intensive olive groves with a high density planting, usually 500 to 750 trees per acre, modern irrigation systems, namely drop by drop, and also more rational fertilization were set up by the company in several locations across the world, mainly in Portugal,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Organization

Sovena is currently present worldwide. The company has four different inter-related business areas that cover the olive oil, table olive, vegetable oil and also soap value chain. *Sovena Consumer Goods – products, which range from olive oils to vegetable oils, table olives,

vinegars Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

and soaps. Its factories are scattered around Portugal, Spain, the

U.S.A. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and Tunisia, but it also has commercial teams in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, and it exports to more than 70 other countries on all 5 continents. *Sovena Oliseeds – The genesis of the group is vegetable oils. In both the Portuguese and the Spanish operations, it sells seeds for planting and buys back the production of farmers, that it then used to crush and refine vegetable oils. *Sovena Agriculture – This business area consists of exploring its own farmyards, or rented ones, in order to grow olive groves and manage olive oil mills where its own olives can be processed. It is a huge project, one of the largest in the World, and it is already working at full speed in Portugal, Spain and Morocco. *Sovena Biodiesel – Despite not being its core business, the use of vegetable oils to produce biofuels brought the company into the energy business.

Brands

*Sovena *AAA *Frigi *Fula *Vêgê *Oliveira da Serra *Andorinha *Olivari *Clarim *Fontoliva *Primadonna

External links

Official website

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= Agriculture companies of Portugal Food and drink companies of Portugal Food and drink companies established in 1956 Portuguese companies established in 1956 Agriculture companies established in 1956 Companies of Portugal