Being an association of, and service organisation for, horticultural producing and commercializing companies, COEXPHAL is deeply involved in all initiatives related to sustainability of the greenhouse system. In the most arid region of Europe, the optimisation of water and fertiliser use is a key factor for this sustainability.

In close collaboration with the University of Almería (UAL), COEXPHAL will set up pilot projects, to demonstrate the efficacy of new techniques, the use of new equipment and the application of a fertilisation model that has been developed by the UAL in former projects.

While the UAL mostly focusses on conventional crops, COEXPAL will concentrate a large part of their efforts on organic crop management. Currently, approximately 15% of the total greenhouse area is managed under the rules of organic agriculture. Although all greenhouse growers will soon be obliged to quantify environmental parameters as the water and nitrogen footprints, this is even more urgent for organic growers.

COEXPHAL will disseminate the generated knowledge on the optimisation of fertigation among the technical departments of their associated companies.

The laboratory of COEXPHAL may extend their service in soil and plant analysis with the knowledge obtained in this project.