On 2 March 1946, ten forward-looking and future-oriented farmers from Silandro founded the GEOS, the cooperative of Silandro’s fruit producers, which has since then decisively influenced the economic development of Val Venosta. GEOS apples, pears and apricots have distinguished themselves by their taste, naturalness and special quality from the very beginning. The number of members is increasing year by year and therefore this cooperative can be considered to be an important business factor for Val Venosta.

At the beginning of the 1960s, GEOS joined the Consortium of South Tyrolean Fruit Growers’ Cooperatives and the first trademark was introduced. A few years later, it was decided to change the cultivation strategy and to start with the cultivation of Golden Delicious, the “queen of apples”.   

This decision proved to be right and was crowned with success thanks to large investments in storage capacities. The 1970s were characterized by strong growth, modernisation, improvement of technological standards and the admission of new members.

In the 1980s, GEOS introduced the method of integrated production and created the ladybird symbol as recognition element for this cultivation method which is later used by all Val Venosta cooperatives. The 1990s represent the beginning of biological production. At the same time, GEOS was one of the driving forces for the foundation of VI.P, the Val Venosta Cooperatives Association.

Since the turn of the millennium, GEOS has been constantly faced with new challenges. Food safety and traceability have become catchwords of fruit marketing. GEOS satisfies the ISO 9001:2000 and IFS (International Food Standard) requirements. Furthermore, more than 98% of cultivated apples were for the first time certified according to the strict GLOBALGAP guidelines in 2007. In order to improve food safety we broke new ground regarding the storage of Red Delicious. The local postharvest treatment with diphenylamine (DPA) could be completely substituted by dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA). All former DPA cells were pulled down in the course of modernizing the dispatch and logistics department. Therefore, GEOS has become one of the first South Tyrolean cooperatives which are completely DPA-free.

Tradition, love of nature, experience and the farmers’ commitment are today ideally complemented with the most modern technologies. One of the best examples is GEOS’ fully integrated photovoltaic plant which represents the belief in sustainable use of the environment.