Founded in 1944, the cooperative Melix Bressanone has been a member of the VOG since 1945. It has around 170 members who supplied 22.000.000 kg of fruit in 2021.

“Together we are strong”. This motto has characterised the history of this cooperative. It was chosen because, more than 60 years ago, a farmer had to look on helplessly when fruit wholesalers forced a woman farmer to sell her harvest literally for peanuts, just because her harvest was so small.

To counter this dependency, and to strengthen the position of farmers in general, a few fruit producers got together in 1944 to found the Bressanone Fruit Growers’ Cooperative. In the beginning the harvests, which were still small, were kept in different stores. Nevertheless, yields continued to increase, so the first warehouse was opened close to the rail station in Bressanone in 1961. This was extended in the years that followed. And the machines used also became more and more innovative. New sorting and packaging machines, offices and workrooms – everything was extended and updated. Another milestone in the history of this cooperative came in the year 2000 with the merger with the Seed Growers’ Co-operative from the Val d’Isarco, whose buildings were also completely modernized in 2004.