the essentials Developed in the heart of the Agen agropolis, the Pita Pocket company offers organic, local and fair trade products made from chickpeas.
The Agen agropole offers budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring their projects to life. Entering the incubator in January 2023 then the nursery from September, Jean-Philippe Cazaux and Sara Mangiagalli took advantage of the opportunity to develop their company Pita Pocket and their Happeaz brand.
Pita Pocket is a “local legume processing project, committed to working with farmers”, announces Jean-Philippe Cazaux. A project that he and his wife are developing to offer restaurateurs alternatives to meat. The couple, who have 15 years of experience in collective catering, decided to embark on this project after covid.
Return to Occitania after a Catalan exile
“It was very difficult to manage catering during covid,” says Jean-Philippe Cazaux. Living in Barcelona at the time, they decided to come and settle in Toulouse with their children, Jean-Philippe Cazaux being originally from the pink city. “We said to ourselves that we were going to try working in the food industry and that we were going to focus on one recipe, falafels.”
Once the idea was launched, the couple looked in the South for a place offering support adapted to their idea and this is how they landed at the Agen agropole “the only structure of this type to offer such support “, assures Jean-Philippe Cazaux.
Organic, local and fair trade products
“We make here with local ingredients,” summarizes Jean-Philippe Cazaux. The Happeaz brand is also labeled organic South-West and fair trade. In this sense, Pita Pocket also wishes to support farmers in their transition to organic or fair trade. “In the current context, we can clearly see that it is important” says Jean-Phillipe Cazaux. The company therefore signs multi-year contracts with the farmer, guaranteeing him to take his production before he has even sown it.
Organic, local and fair trade, that’s all well and good, but what about the price? Here again, Pita Pocket thought of it. “We always start from the sale price,” says Jean-Philippe, a price that he also wants to commit to. “Today we sell at €23 per kilo and the objective is to go down to €19,” explains the industrialist. The secret to a fair price and a fair remuneration lies in Pita Pocket’s commitments. “Working locally means we pay much less for transport and we have very few intermediaries,” says Jean-Philippe Cazaux.
And that’s just the beginning
With production in Estillac carried out with 90% of the products located within 30 km of the Acropolis, Pita Pocket makes local and fair trade its greatest strength. If the company has marketed its first products, it wishes to develop other ranges of addition or processing of legumes, while always remaining faithful to its values.
To do this, the company can count on the support of France Active, Reseau initiative 47 and the region, the latter having promised a contribution of €80,000. The couple, who intend to quickly hire more people to help them, have signed contracts with Manger Bio Sud Ouest in Damazan (food distribution platform for regional collective catering), SoBio and hope to soon land a contract with Biocop.
2024-02-24 06:34:56
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