More and more farmers implement this system to avoid intermediaries
Faced with the difference between the price that producers earn and the price that food ends up costing, farmers from all over the country have started the “sponsorship” of their trees to trade their fruits without intermediariesbring the agricultural process closer to the “urban” market and fight against depopulation.
The same idea has emerged in different parts of the country and has led olive, orange and almond trees to be “sponsored & rdquor; through this new system that tries to avoid the abuse of intermediaries.
The initiative comes from farming families, from rural areas, they know the problems that the countryside has suffered, which it is currently facing and they foresee a gray future; they are the producers who have decided to offer these trees to shed a ray of light on the future of the sector.
Some years ago the first projects emerged, which achieved significant success. With the aim of “providing a solution to the problem of depopulation” a sponsorship project already in 2014 in Oliete (Teruel), which to date has already managed to save around 15,000 olive trees.
For the creator of Apadrina un Olivo, Alberto Alfonso Pordomingo, “it is possible to maintain the population” in rural areas and even more so when a project like his encourages agricultural work and promotes the connection of the “urbanite” with the environment.
How can you sponsor a tree? Through the internet you can choose an olive tree and, choose if it is for oneself or if it is to give to another person: later, once the process is done, the client will be able to receive at home the oil obtained with that tree when the harvest is over.
For its creator, as explained in statements to Efeagro, this initiative manages to retain both the population and the crops themselves in these rural areas and, in addition, they collaborate with social associations with the aim of helping groups at risk of social exclusion. .
Almonds: from the tree to the house
It is not the only case. In the Sierra de Irta (Castellón)at the foot of the Mediterranean Sea, between the municipalities of Peñíscola and Alcossebre, are the orange trees of José Manuel Escuder, a farmer who just a few years ago decided that “the beauty” of his land and its almond trees had to be shown.
This is how his relative Eulogio Pascual explains it, in charge of launching the website to adopt the almond trees.
This idea aims to “involve more” in the production process to consumers, so that they know the times and how to harvest and, also to promote the proximity product: “The almond goes from the tree to your house,” he adds.
The product offered by these farmers is that consumers pay for the maintenance of the tree and, in exchange, they will receive the fruits once they are ready.
Valencian oranges looking for a godfather
Without leaving the Valencian Community, there is also another family project that emerged a couple of months ago from two brothers who have put their oranges and mandarins from two different areas up for adoption.
The first is les Coves de Vinromà, where they grow the Navel Fukumoto and Lane Late orange varieties, and the Clemenules and Afourer mandarins, and the second is located in Vinarós, where they grow orange varieties such as Washington and Navel, and mandarins.
Sponsoring these orange trees costs 70 euros a year And, with this amount, they can supervise and learn the cultivation processes through an online calendar, according to what A. María Andreu Barro explains in statements to Efeagro.
In addition, if the tree suffers any mishap during the sponsorship, the client is offered his annual harvest of any of those that are available until the new planted tree produces, as he explains.
For Andreu, this initiative It is a way for consumers to “see the work behind the food” and to have “fresh products” of which, he assures, will notice the difference with those who have gone through more processes in the chain until they reach the store.
Consumers who, whether through olive, orange or almond trees, contribute to the survival of family farming and the promotion of the social fabric.
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