Highlights of the Year
- JMA celebrated its 10-year anniversary
- Terra Alegre renewed its IFS (International Featured Standard) certification
- Best Farmer, together with Recheio, strengthened its positioning through the Best Farmer butcher, with counters in 15 stores of the cash & carry chain
- In aquaculture, financial stake in Andfjord Salmon increased to 28%
- In the fruit and vegetables area, of note is the production and marketing in Portugal and Poland of organic seedless grapes under the brand “hey, vita!”
Message from the Managing Director
JMA celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, a period in which it created and grew four different business areas: dairy, livestock farming, aquaculture, and fruit and vegetables, with business units and holdings across Portugal, Morocco and Norway. All business areas continued to implement their plans for strong growth, with the dairy area the only one now in the consolidation phase.
In the year, livestock farming was marked by the increase in fattening capacity at the Monte de Trigo farm, the start of operations at the new Pernes farm, and the start of operations at the new automated dairy farm.
As regards aquaculture, work was completed on the sorting unit in Vila Real de Santo António and the salmon project in Norway saw accelerated implementation, which will allow operations to begin in towards the end of 2025, through the subsidiary Andfjord Salmon.
In the fruit and vegetable sector, tango mandarins have been successfully planted, preparatory work for an additional 100 hectares of organic oranges was completed, and the first international campaign to sell grapes “hey,vita!” brand was carried out, with an extensive work to promote the brand.
Websites were designed for each brand. JMA trained its commercial team and carried out initiatives towards opening sales channels, aimed at promoting its products on the national and international markets, enabling it to increase its activity and diversifying its customers in 2025.
The year 2025 will see consolidation of the current business areas, taking advantage of accumulated know-how and installed capacity, and a strengthening of our presence in the different markets, building on work begun in 2024.
António Serrano
CEO Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar
More information on Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar’s sustainability initiatives can be found in the “Sustainability” section of this Annual Report.
Focus on supplying Strategic Products
In 2024 JMA celebrated ten years of commercial activity. Divided into four business areas – dairy, livestock farming, aquaculture, and fruit and vegetables – the Company currently has operations nationwide (mainland Portugal and Madeira), in Morocco and has a financial stake in Norway. It employs over 500 people.
In a challenging market and with significant cost inflation, mainly related to wages and commodities (in production and energy costs), JMA did not waver in its mission to ensure the availability of key products, ensuring food safety, innovation and differentiation.
In the dairy sector, Terra Alegre continued to affirm the integrity and quality of its products and food processes, achieving “excellence” in the IFS audit, a benchmark recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and renewed its environmental certification for Health and Safety in the Workplace (HSW).
As regards livestock farming, Best Farmer scaled up the projects launched in the previous year and strengthened the brand’s positioning and visibility by increasing the number of Best Farmer butcher counters, now available in 15 Recheio stores, after the first counter opened in 2023.
As part of its sustainable strategy for angus meat production, operations began at a new farm located in Pernes, Santarém (Central Portugal).
The year 2024 saw the start of automated milking following successful installation of the robotic milking system at the dairy farm in Monte do Trigo.
At the same time, significant progress was made in aquaculture in 2024, with JMA increasing its stake in Andfjord Salmon to 28% (from 25.1%).
Building on the introduction of the aquaculture industry in Vila Real de Santo António, Seaculture finalised its logistics structure project, both on land (facilities and support dock) and at sea, and kicked off its fishing operations. Construction of the packaging unit to support the operation is also nearing completion.
With regard to fruit and vegetable production, JMA now wholly owns Outro Chão (organic seedless grapes production) and increased its stake in Supreme Fruits (production of tango mandarins and stone fruit: peaches, nectarines and plums) from 50% to 80%.
Operations have started at Outro Chão’s integrated packaging unit, enabling the marketing of around 1,500 tonnes of organic seedless grapes in Portugal and Poland under the “hey,vita!” brand (launched in 2023) without compromising the quality and shelf life of the product.
While developing and adapting each business unit, JMA remains focused on sustainability and quality, obtaining certifications for specific products and processes that attest to this commitment. These include obtaining and renewing Global Gap certification for its aquaculture business in Madeira and for the production of organic seedless grapes and obtaining IFS certification for the Outro Chão packaging unit.
The institutional websites for each of the JMA brands were launched in the year.