Fruit Today talked to Adolfo García, the company’s Manager, who has an in-depth knowledge of farming around the Campo de Cartagena and who is highly critical of the situation that agriculture is suffering from at present.
You are very critical of the policies that are being carried out in agriculture.
Of course, it is very disheartening to see how the fields, which feed us all, are at one of their most concerning moments. There are several reasons behind this, but the most pressing one is the lack of water. A Spanish national hydrological plan is urgently needed to guarantee the water supply. We also have unfair competition from third countries, which are not subjected to the same quality and safety regulations as us, nor do they suffer from our stifling red tape.
All that we have built over many generations, is tending to be lost because there is no generational handover; the ‘know how’ of our parents and grandparents, transmitted over many generations and improved and technified since the 1990s, is being lost. One of the State’s main strategies should be to keep its agriculture alive to ensure that the national storerooms do not depend on third countries.
What are the prospects for the next winter campaign and how have you finished the season?
This year, our aim involved maintaining a slight growth compared to the previous year. If there were to be a water shortage it would be a disaster, and everything we are hearing indicates that it is not guaranteed 100%; therefore, we need to be cautious before acting.
Furthermore, lemon production will be more controlled in quantitative terms, which gives us some respite following the previous situation. The spring pepper campaign went well; I think that in some cases the average prices were higher than last year’s.
What new lines of research are Camposeven carrying out?
This season, with the help of the innovation agency AINNOA, we are going to start up a project aimed at giving value to the sub-products, that is to say, trying to give them another use, in addition to just food. We are thinking about celery, of which 40% gets left on the terraces. We will also try to do the same with broccoli, lemons or peppers.
