If ten years ago a conversation had come up at Fresh Market about apples one day being packed in paper-and-bamboo netting instead of plastic, most people would have raised an eyebrow. In 2014, the discussion about sustainable packaging for fruit and vegetables was only beginning to gain momentum — pushed by EU regulation, by retail-chain requirements, and by what the shopper at the supermarket was expecting ever more loudly. Companies that had already chosen that direction had a decade of work ahead to move from demo to production line.
Cristóbal Meseguer S.A. — CMSA for short — is one of the companies that walked that road in practice. Founded in 1987, this Spanish firm, headquartered in Murcia and Valencia, has for more than 25 years specialized in manufacturing packaging systems for fruit and vegetables. Not for the supermarket, not for marketing, not for advertising — for the actual fruit and vegetable growers who pack their products on a line and need a solution that is fast, durable, and today additionally compliant with tightening environmental standards.
CMSA's most characteristic products in recent years are EarthFlow and EarthPack — packaging made of 95% FSC-certified paper combined with bamboo fibers and natural bio-based adhesives. An apparently simple idea: instead of plastic mesh, a combination of paper and paper-plus-bamboo mesh. In practice — a system refined over years that works on fast automatic lines such as FlowPack (up to 60 bags per minute for products in trays of up to 6 units), or on vertical lines (up to 40 bags per minute, formats from 500 g to 2.5 kg).
What does this mean for a vegetable grower visiting Fresh Market? Two things. First — that sustainable packaging is no longer a trade-off in performance. A machine producing 40–60 bags per minute doesn't slow the line down, while packing in material that meets today's retail requirements. Second — that the decision to change packaging is no longer a "cost vs. ecology" trade-off. Durability, ventilation, compatibility with the existing line, and market response all enter the equation.
CMSA today has customers in more than 15 countries — from Spain and Portugal, across most EU markets, to Poland, where we regularly meet them at Fresh Market. In 2026 the company is opening a new packaging hub in Beniaján, Murcia, with a €1.8M investment and a projected €28M turnover for the year. On top of that comes a full range of packaging machinery — multihead weighers (CCW-RV214), vertical packaging machines, case packers, weight control, and palletizing grippers.
From a Polish fresh-produce perspective, CMSA's story shows that the packaging problem is not Polish, Spanish, or German. It's a shared problem of the whole European industry, and the companies solving it must work across borders from day one. Fresh Market 2014 was one of the moments when this conversation moved from the wishlist to the purchase list. The 20th edition is a good moment to remember that the shift from plastic to sustainable packaging happened because companies like CMSA prepared it for more than a decade — before the market was ready to buy.
— — — Cristóbal Meseguer (CMSA) is one of the companies that shaped Fresh Market — with us since the 2014 edition. Join the 20th edition: Fresh Market 2026, 24 September, MCC Mazurkas, Warsaw. Register: https://freshmarket.eu/registration
Fresh Market 2026 — rejestracja: https://freshmarket.eu/registration
