Dear President of the Regional Government of the Azores
Dear Professor Jos\u00e9 Matos
Dear Director General of Lacta\u00e7ores
Dear Representatives of the Agricultural Credit Fund of the Azores
Dear President of the General Assembly and Supervisory Board of Finisterra
Dear Mayor of Calheta, Vice-Mayor of Velas, and other Mayors
Dear Members of Parliament
Dear Father Ant\u00f3nio Duarte Azevedo, Parish Priest of Velas, Urzelina, and Beira
Dear Members and Employees of Finisterra
FRIENDS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is with great pride that I chair the Board of Directors of Finisterra during this term in which the Cooperative celebrates its 75th anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first words are to honor all those who founded this Institution 75 years ago and from which the first Board of Directors emerged, embodying a generous idea of \u200b\u200bsharing in a community far from the main centers, even in S\u00e3o Jorge, especially at the time, and which therefore needed to encourage self-help, even as an essential means of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allow me also to thank all the people who, individually or representing institutions, wanted to join us here today to mark an important date for the Cooperative, its Members, and Collaborators, as well as all those who, unable to be present, have sent us congratulatory messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would also like to thank His Excellency the President of the Regional Government of the Azores, Dr. Vasco Cordeiro, who is presiding over this ceremony, and Professor Jos\u00e9 Matos, retired full professor of the University of the Azores, for their presence among us. We are honored by your willingness to be here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this special day, we want to share with all of you the great joy of this celebration, as we feel that everyone is, in some way, a part of our history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ladies and Gentlemen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Life, a journey of constant construction of an identity that began on May 22, 1944: Finisterra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
75 years are not 75 days. Therefore, it is clear that I would not be able to list all the important moments of such a long period in a reasonable time. Let me focus on the Cooperative’s more recent history and highlight four moments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transition from the 20th century to the present;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The creation of Lacta\u00e7ores in 2004;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inauguration of the current Manufacturing Unit in 2009;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the beginning, in 2011, of the significant and sustainable valorization of the milk delivered to the factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transition from the 20th century to the present was a historic and defining moment for Finisterra. The Protocol signed in July 2000 with Uniqueijo and Associated Cooperatives, aiming to implement a “strategic action and investment plan to reorganize and strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the dairy economy on S\u00e3o Jorge Island,” proved to be a turning point in the Cooperative’s life, impacting its operational activities, performance, and ongoing results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under this Protocol, on July 1, 2000, Finisterra became a member of Uniqueijo. It benefited from a 10-year loan contracted directly with the Caixa de Cr\u00e9dito Agr\u00edcola M\u00fatuo dos A\u00e7ores, with the Regional Government guaranteeing payment of all principal and interest installments. The Cooperative’s members also benefited from new rules regarding milk classification and payment terms for milk produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can confidently state that Finisterra and its members seized this opportunity presented to them by the Regional Government. The results achieved since then are instructive: over 3 million euros in accumulated net profits over 17 consecutive years of positive net profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the signing of this Protocol, work continued that led to the creation of Lacta\u00e7ores, the Union of Dairy Cooperatives of the Azores, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. Many congratulations to Lacta\u00e7ores as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2004, Lacta\u00e7ores has been a major player in the national market for most of the products it sells, and its commercial performance has been very important for the island of S\u00e3o Jorge and its cheese. It has contributed significantly to the appreciation of the Cooperatives’ brands and S\u00e3o Jorge DOP cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lacta\u00e7ores’ growing involvement in the S\u00e3o Jorge project, particularly in the search for more customers and new markets and in increasing the awareness of the brands produced by Uniqueijo and Associated Cooperatives, has allowed, for example, the Topo brand and the S\u00e3o Jorge DOP cheese produced by Finisterra to increase in value by more than 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The market in the Scandinavian Peninsula countries (Sweden, Norway, and Finland), Spain with LIDL and MERCADONA, the largest Spanish supermarket chain with 1,636 stores, and which, on July 2nd,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear President of the Regional Government of the AzoresDear Professor Jos\u00e9 MatosDear Director General of Lacta\u00e7oresDear Representatives of the Agricultural Credit Fund of the AzoresDear President of the General Assembly and Supervisory Board of FinisterraDear Mayor of Calheta, Vice-Mayor of Velas, and other MayorsDear Members of ParliamentDear Father Ant\u00f3nio Duarte Azevedo, Parish Priest of Velas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sem-categoria-pt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finisterratopo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}