About Lavourra
Three generations of Alentejo farming, run with modern precision
Lavourra is a network of seventeen family-run estates between Évora and Beja, farming olives, cereals and irrigated produce under one agronomy standard and one traceability system.
- Founded
- 1998
- Under cultivation
- 2,140 ha
- Permanent staff
- 90
Who we are
A cooperative habit with a company structure
Lavourra began as one family with one grove. It grew because neighbours who were being squeezed out by scale found a way to stay independent: pool the agronomy, pool the machinery, pool the route to market, and keep the land in the family name.
That is still how it works. Each estate has its own manager who knows the ground, sets the daily order of work, and answers for the crop. What Lavourra provides centrally is the agronomy team, the harvest logistics, the certification burden, the storage at Beja and the relationships with buyers in six countries.
It means a processor in Lyon can buy a consistent, documented product from a region of small farms — and the farms stay small. The Alentejo lost a third of its rural population in two generations. We are not sentimental about that, but we are structured against it.
Our story
Sixty-four seasons, in short
Nothing here happened quickly. Olive trees do not permit it.
1962
The first grove
Joaquim Lavoura plants eleven hectares of Galega olives on thin schist ground east of Évora. Those trees are still in production; they are the slowest and the best fruit we handle.
1978
Cereal joins the rotation
Dryland wheat and barley go in on the flatter parcels, establishing the rotation that still underpins our soil management half a century on.
1998
Lavourra is founded
Four neighbouring families join a shared marketing and agronomy arrangement rather than sell their estates. That model — independent farms, common standards — became the company.
2011
Water from Alqueva
The reservoir network reaches our district. We convert the produce blocks to drip and commit to leaving two-thirds of the cereal area dry-farmed.
2019
Traceability end to end
Lot coding is extended from mill intake back to the individual parcel and picking crew, and GLOBALG.A.P. certification is taken across the whole network.
2026
Seventeen estates
2,140 hectares under cultivation, ninety permanent staff, and a growing share of production going direct to processors in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
How we work
Four things we do not negotiate on
Independent farms, one standard
Our partner growers own their land and make their own decisions. What they sign up to is the agronomy protocol, the record-keeping and the audit — not a takeover.
Say what the season is doing
If the rain fails in March we tell buyers in March. Every long-term customer we have was won by being early with bad news at least once.
Grow to a contract
We plant against agreed volumes rather than speculating on price. It costs us the occasional good year and saves us the bad ones.
Keep the knowledge in the district
Nearly all our permanent staff live within forty kilometres of the estate they work. The Alentejo has lost enough people; we would rather be a reason to stay.
“My grandfather planted trees he knew he would never see fruit from. That is the whole job, really. You are farming for whoever is standing here in forty years.”
Trade enquiries
Tell us what you need and when you need it
Send us the crop, the volume and the delivery window. If we can grow it well here we will say so, and if we cannot we will tell you that too — usually within two working days.