Filippe Jesus Claudio (47 years old), a farmer born in France, of Portuguese parents, and settled for several years in Cartaya, Huelva (where he arrived for work reasons), has ventured into the cultivation of an exotic fruit that is new for the province.
He will be growing pitahaya, or dragon fruit, also known as "the new avocado". Filippe Jesus has brought it to the province of Huelva from a Portuguese region north of Lisbon, where it has already been produced with great success by Portuguese farmers for many years.
According to this agricultural entrepreneur, the cultivation of this exotic species has also been tested in different parts of the Andalusian provinces of Seville, Malaga and Granada, as well as in the region of Murcia, where, given the success of the tests, there are already farmers that have started its commercial production.
Filippe Jesus Claudio is so convinced of the success of this novel crop that he invested more than 30,000 Euro in his farm in Cartaya last year in order to plant a total of 1,800 pitahaya plants of the Hylocereus undatus variety. These will be cultivated in an area of 4,000 square meters under an intensive regime. In addition, he is already immersed in the preparations for a new plantation for next year, where he aims to plant 8,000 plants on another hectare of land under a super-intensive regime. This one will features both the Hylocereus undatus and the Hylocererus megalanthus.
According to the farmer, the crop is "easy to handle and requires very little maintenance. In addition, he says that it doesn't need much water, just between one and a half and two liters per plant a week in summer, and the same amount for fifteen days in winter. Moreover, it doesn't need any phytosanitary products, so "we could basically consider it an organic and environmentally-friendly crop."
The pitahaya is sown in the month of November. Filippe states that "it is still early for it to become productive this year, and I will only get an average of one fruit per plant." However, when the plants become fully productive, starting in July of next year, "I will get the first serious harvest."
Two others will follow that same year, and perhaps three, since, according to the farmer, the plant has three blooms annually, in July, October and November, and depending on the weather, there may even be a fourth. The blooms usually coincide with full moon nights, with the first one of the year taking place in May. The campaign can then last up until the end of October, or even November, in the case of a fourth bloom.
Two years after being planted, the pitahaya usually yields between two and four kilos of fruit per year; a volume that continues doubling year after year until the fifth, which is when the plant reaches its full potential. Then, according to Filippe, it produces between 40 and 60 kilos per year, depending on the weather, pruning, management and maintenance.
However, the pitahaya has a characteristic which, according to the entrepreneur, "is the main obstacle for its cultivation outside of Central America. It has to be pollinated at night and by hand with the help of a brush, as its flower only opens during a single night. Since the plant is originally from Central America, the pollination in the wild is usually carried by a bat species that does not live anywhere else. Natural pollinators in the province of Huelva are usually bees or other insects which do not work at night, so it is impossible for them to perform this task in the case of pitahayas. "Something similar happens with custard apple in Malaga, which also has to be pollinated by hand," explains Filippe.
The farmer is also very confident of the "great profitability" that could be obtained from this new crop. And, he explains, although this fruit is currently only sold in markets like Portugal, Germany, and in other countries of northern Europe, the farmer is paid about five Euro per kilo. Final consumers then pay between 14 and 17 Euro in stores.
This leads him to anticipate that he will be able to get back the investment he made in his current farm during the second year of production.
To achieve this, one of his main objectives is to open markets for the fruit, first in France, as well as to start promoting its consumption in Spain, where, for the time being, it can only be found in gourmet establishments.