Agromolinillo: digitizing the management of 3,200 workers in a leading blueberry cooperative

Customer

Agromolinillo

Campaign

2021

Solution

HR and Collection

The company

Agromolinillo is an agricultural cooperative based in Moguer (Huelva) that started as a small family business founded in 1979 by Juan Márquez Soriano. What started as a family project has grown into, more than four decades later, one of the leading blueberry-producing cooperatives in Spain. Today, Agromolinillo brings together 11 growers who cultivate 800 hectares across farms in Moguer, Lucena del Puerto, Bonares, Rociana del Condado and Almonte. Of those 800 hectares, 400 are devoted to blueberries, 200 to strawberries, 100 to citrus fruit and the rest to olive trees and cereals. With a permanent workforce of 450 employees that grows to 3,200 at the height of the harvest season, the cooperative exports 90% of its annual production to dozens of countries, making it one of the most recognised blueberry cooperatives in Spain and abroad.

The challenge: scale, complexity and fragmented systems

As Agromolinillo grew, its existing management tools were no longer enough. The cooperative was operating with a combination of paper-based processes and various software applications that captured information in a fragmented way, with no integrated overview or centralised data. What works for a small business wasn't enough for an operation of this size.

The first major challenge was managing attendance, hours worked and labour costs for 3,200 employees organised into multiple crews, who also work across different companies within the cooperative. Each of the 11 growers had to manage their own employees separately in terms of wages and other administrative tasks, making the admin work even harder to manage.

Transferring all that information into payroll software was a particularly slow and frustrating process: the HR department spent an enormous amount of time on manual data transfers, with the associated risk of errors and delays. Each season, the pressure on the administrative team grew at the same rate as the workforce.

A second priority soon became clear: the need to precisely track the harvesting processes of each crew, on each farm and plot. Without reliable, real-time data, making quick operational decisions was virtually impossible.

The solution: how Agrogestia adapted to Agromolinillo's reality

Agromolinillo chose Agrogestia with a clear objective: to digitalise operations, optimise processes and get real-time control of field data. The implementation was designed in phases, starting with the most urgent: attendance management, labour cost control and integration with payroll software.

Crew supervisors, both in the field and in the warehouse, adopted the Agrogestia app as their daily working tool. From their mobile devices they register working hours and all the operational information required.

Agrogestia's multi-company structure was key to addressing the cooperative's reality: each of the 11 growers manages their own employees and wages independently, while Agromolinillo's management team has a full picture of the whole business. This model combines per-grower autonomy with overall control — something essential in a cooperative structure of this size.

The integration with payroll software was a turning point for the HR department. Manual data transfers became a thing of the past, replaced by an automatic flow that reduces errors and gives the team time for more valuable work.

Once HR was running smoothly, the focus moved to harvesting operations. Agrogestia now enables production to be recorded by crew, farm and plot with a high level of detail. The system was adapted to manage large crews and detailed data capture across all farms.

Over the years, the platform has been expanded with features tailored to Agromolinillo's needs: custom reports, financial analytics, bulk payroll category assignments and automatic data auditing. The platform also works offline — essential for farms with poor connectivity.

Results

The implementation of Agrogestia has transformed Agromolinillo's daily operations across the whole business.

The HR team no longer spends days on manual data transfers: attendance and cost data now flow automatically into payroll software, with a level of reliability that was previously unattainable when managing 3,200 workers with fragmented tools.

Crew supervisors record all activity from the mobile app, saving time and eliminating errors associated with paper. The production department has accurate harvesting data by crew, farm and plot in real time, so managers can act fast when needed.

The finance team now has custom data analytics that simply didn't exist before, while the cooperative's management team has a full picture of all 11 growers — making it easier to compare, plan and decide with complete, up-to-date information.

Errors are detected automatically before they reach the payroll system or management reports, avoiding costly mistakes.

”Agrogestia has relieved us a lot in counting the hours worked and has streamlined the preparation of payrolls. It has also allowed us to improve attendance control, cost management, reporting and many other aspects of human resource management.”

— Manuel Blanquiño, Head of Presence Control, Agromolinillo

More than software — a partnership that grows with the business

Since 2021, a lot has changed at Agromolinillo. And Agrogestia has changed with them.

What started with HR gradually expanded to harvesting, custom analytics, tailored reports and integrations built specifically for how this cooperative works. New modules are already in the pipeline.

And the conversation between both teams hasn't stopped since.