RuralCat annually awards the PITA prizes (Award for Agri-Food Technological Innovation). In 2017 Vivers Sala Graupera won the first prize for young entrepreneur and innovator, an award that aims to distinguish and reward agricultural companies that have incorporated significant innovations in the agri-food field.
The Young Innovative Entrepreneur Award category was awarded this past Thursday, January 31, 2019 in Girona to Mr. Albert Sala from Vivers Sala Graupera, for the implementation of innovations in the company; in our case, the creation of a demonstration garden of new sustainable gardening species was presented.
Our demonstration garden is an element to be able to test, market, and disseminate the use of new sustainable gardening species. It also opens up a new line of business for us, such as visits and workshops for school children or people interested in gardening. The garden occupies 2,500 square meters of the total surface area of the nursery, which is 5.7 hectares of agricultural operation.
It is a testing ground. The scarce bibliography on the species used makes experimentation in the garden fundamental to studying their development, characteristics, and limitations. All the data we can extract from the garden will be disseminated through our website or through our catalog, which contributes to increasing knowledge about these species.
Marketing is also enhanced thanks to the demonstration garden becoming a 3D catalog of the company.
Customers can see how the species in our catalog look on the ground and this greatly facilitates their marketing.
The innovation has been reflected in a series of benefits, as sales have increased by 5% since the inauguration of the garden. Additionally, having this demonstration garden provides the company with a point of interest capable on its own of attracting visitors and, consequently, enhancing customer interaction.
In addition to visiting the garden, our customers are offered the opportunity to visit the installation of a CLEANLEACH demonstration plant for the recovery and treatment of irrigation water through natural processes. This project had the support of the European Union, Eco-Innovació, IRTA, and the companies Naturalea, BuresInnova, and Salix. There are two plants with this system in Europe, one in our nursery, Vivers Sala Graupera, and a second located in the United Kingdom.