AgroBank, the specialized division of CaixaBank for the agri-food sector, has awarded Dcoop the Agro-Food Innovation Award 2026 in Andalusia, with which it recognizes its commitment to innovation, cooperative integration, and a business model that "combines growth, efficiency, sustainability, and value creation for thousands of farmers and ranchers, also contributing to strengthening the international leadership of the Andalusian olive oil sector".
The territorial director of CaixaBank in Andalusia, Juan Ignacio Zafra, presented the award’s accreditation diploma to Dcoop’s president, Antonio Luque, at an event in which the cooperative’s contribution to strengthening the Andalusian agri-food sector was highlighted and, in particular, its status as an international benchmark in the olive oil sector thanks to its ability to drive competitiveness, sustainability, and the development of agro-food cooperativism, as the financial entity stated in a press release.
This is the first call for awards that recognize the innovative efforts of companies and cooperatives from across the country and that are organized into eleven territorial recognitions and a state ceremony to be held on 1 December next at the GOE (Gastronomy Open Ecosystem), the innovation center of the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián.
With this award, AgroBank highlights Dcoop’s commitment to the continuous improvement of its agri-food processes and reaffirms that innovation in the agricultural field is key to moving forward in competitiveness, sustainability, and the future of rural areas.
The AgroBank Awards for Agro-Food Innovation are created with the aim of distinguishing and giving visibility to innovative projects that, like Dcoop’s, transform essential processes of agri-food activity. The call is aimed mainly at companies and cooperatives, which are the base of the agri-food fabric in Andalusia and, in many cases, do not have the same visibility as large corporations at the national level.
The territorial recognition granted to Dcoop makes it possible to focus on the efforts of companies linked to the territory that incorporate differential solutions in their production, processing, marketing, and logistics processes, with a clear orientation toward efficiency, sustainability, and value creation for their partners.
Juan Ignacio Zafra has highlighted that this award reflects CaixaBank’s commitment to the Andalusian agri-food sector and values the work of companies that bet on innovation in processes as a tool to gain competitiveness and strengthen the rural environment.
"Dcoop shows the strength of the Andalusian agri-food fabric in positioning itself at the forefront of the sector’s modernization, with initiatives that integrate efficiency, quality, innovation and a benchmark business dimension for the whole of Spanish agribusiness. Its leadership in the olive oil sector and its role as a driving force of agri-food cooperativism make the entity an example of how innovation can strengthen the competitiveness and international outlook of our countryside", the entity has emphasized.
It has also indicated that the award fits with CaixaBank’s vocation to accompany companies in their transformation processes and to promote the creation of opportunities in the territories in which it operates. In this sense, Dcoop is positioned as one of the most advanced cooperative models in the European agri-food sector.
Based in Antequera, the cooperative brings together thousands of farmers and ranchers and focuses its activity on strategic areas such as olive oil, table olives, wine, nuts and livestock farming. Its model integrates a business dimension, innovation, international outlook and sustainability, helping to strengthen the competitiveness of the Andalusian and Spanish agri-food sector.
Dcoop continuously drives projects aimed at optimizing the efficiency of the entire value chain, promoting the adoption of new technologies and making it easier for its partners to access national and international markets.
In addition, it has recently strengthened its position in the oilseed sector through its participation, together with Acesur, in the operation for the acquisition of Deoleo, an initiative that helps to consolidate Spain’s leadership in the global olive oil industry.
Commitment to the agri-food sector
The AgroBank Awards for Agri-Food Innovation 2026 are framed within CaixaBank’s global strategy, based on a model of responsible banking, close to the territory and committed to economic, social and environmental sustainability.
The entity places the agri-food sector among its strategic priorities and, through AgroBank, promotes specialized solutions, drives the adoption of more efficient technologies and practices, and supports investments in projects that strengthen territorial roots and the creation of jobs.
With the distinction to Dcoop, AgroBank consolidates its role as a driver of innovation and development in the agri-food field and helps ensure that Andalucía continues to be a reference territory in the production and transformation of food, with innovation, sustainability, and cooperative leadership as distinguishing features.