The official presentation of the new Kaki Ribera del Xúquer campaign took place on the 5th of October
The event was presided over by the mayor of L’Alcudia, Andreu Salom Porta, the chairman of the Control Board, Cirilo Arnandis and the Minister for Agriculture, the Environment, Climate Change and Rural Development, Elena Cebrián Marco.
In the first place, an explanation of the promotion campaign in Spain was given, the main point of which will revolve around the positioning of the registered brand by the Control Board: “Persimon®”.
Over the past few years, knowledge about produce under the brand name “Persimon®” has been growing, although there is still a long way to go, particularly regarding the end consumer. For this reason, the campaign will continue for another month on national television, where a commercial will be broadcast that concentrates on making the persimmon with Denomination of Origin and its brand name “Persimon®” known.
In his speech, the mayor of L’Alcúdia, the town where the Control Board has its head offices, emphasised the importance that persimmon crops represent both for the town and for the rest of the towns in the Ribera region, due to its significance regarding employment and the creation of wealth for the region.
The chairman of the Control Board, Cirilo Arnandis, summarised the history of the crop, which until a few years ago was very limited. Arnandis explained how they saw its potential and worked until they managed to turn it into a nationally and internationally renowned product.
The chairman emphasised that “all of this has been achieved thanks to an important promotional effort that must be kept up now more than ever, to prevent “a possible bubble” since in the near future our production will rise from 220 million kilos to over 550”.
Cirilo Arnandis also wanted to calm people down regarding the latest news items in the press about the appearance of pests affecting persimmons. And on this point, he explained that “these pests have always been present in citrus fruits and the main problem is that there are no authorised active materials, therefore work is being carried out on obtaining the authorisations. Given that until now they had not affected this crop, it would have been difficult for the Ministry to authorise these materials previously.”
The Minister for Agriculture stated that the sector has the Ministry’s entire support to overcome these obstacles, which are already being worked on, and that “in spite of the limited financial capacity that the Ministry has at this moment, work will be carried out to promote exports, as well as to improve the reaction capacity in unforeseen circumstances that are outside the sector’s control, such as the Russian veto”.
Awards. Within the framework of the campaign presentation, the Control Board’s Prize for the Denomination of Origin Kaki Ribera del Xúquer was awarded to the publication ‘Valencia Fruits’, for its editorial line supporting the sector, an award that was collected by Oscar Orzanco.
The event was also an acknowledgement for those members of the Control Board who left it during the last year. Particularly emotional was the recognition devoted to José María Planells, for his contribution both to the sector and to the D.O. His son, Agustín Planells, collected the distinction.
