Alfa Laval, a trusted technology partner for decades, played a key role in the transformation
With the installation of Alfa Laval’s state-of-the-art Foodec Sigma decanter, Caminhos do Futuro has quadrupled its extra virgin olive oil processing capacity, increasing from 1,500 kg/hour to 6,000 kg/hour.
As the last remaining mill in Montemor-o-Novo, the cooperative group recognised the urgent need to evolve to continue serving a growing community of farmers seeking to process olives from their groves. “We either modernised the process or lost competitiveness,” states José Ferreira, the retired operator who dedicated over two decades to the olive oil mill.
Alfa Laval, a trusted technology partner for decades, played a key role in the transformation. “Caminhos do Futuro has always had a vision focused on innovation, and Alfa Laval has supported us every step of the way,” says Nelson Fialho, current general manager. “The decision to invest in a brand-new first-extraction line followed months of careful evaluation and collaboration with their experts to identify the optimal solution for our needs.”
The mill already had an Alfa Laval olive oil decanter in operation since 1998, along with two high-speed separators acquired in 1989 when the first line was installed—all of which remain mechanically efficient today. This reliability reinforced their decision to follow Alfa Laval’s recommendation to repurpose the original line for secondary processing. Since 2024, the old decanter has been used to process pomace, making use of previously discarded material.
