A year ago now, in March 2024, an "exceptional situation due to extraordinary drought" was declared in the entire area of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, and after another spring and summer with little rainfall, the vegetable season got underway in the fall with similar restrictions on irrigation as last season. Nonetheless, this has not prevented areas such as Campo de Elche from expecting an increase in vegetable production which, as already estimated last January, will be 21% greater than last season's, with artichokes leading the way.
"Water is, indeed, very scarce and expensive in the Elche area, and due to increasingly high temperatures even in the fall and winter, more irrigation is needed, but those of us who have continued working in agriculture remain committed to what has been our way of life and that of our parents," says Álvaro Boix, a producer from Campo de Elche who has been awarded the Agricultural Producer of the Year Award 2024 by Asaja Alicante.
"In my case, I'm not just a grower; I also carry out the marketing of my products. We harvest, pack, and sell them in the wholesale and retail markets, offering our clients fresh, local produce, and allowing consumers to buy products that aren't generally sold by supermarkets and large-scale distributors, such as alficoz, a white cucumber traditionally consumed in the Alicante and Murcia area, colored chard, rocket, peas or fresh broad beans," he says.
"With this direct sales system, we also achieve greater profitability and are in a better position to pay the ever-increasing production costs, because it allows us to work with a range of categories that would be discarded if we were to try selling them via distributors or chains. In fact, the sales of first-class categories are always very good, but I'd dare say that the best profits are made from the sale of second and third-class categories," says Álvaro.
"You must keep in mind that, sometimes, only 40-50% of the production is first class and the rest is lower categories that many growers have to throw away or set aside for the processing industry, even though they are still perfectly good for consumption. And with the spread of pests, the share of second and third-class products is increasing. In fact, we are seeing that this year with thrips."
Scirtothrips aurantii has proven to be very harmful to citrus fruits, pomegranate, kakis, and table grapes, "but in my case, it has also attacked vegetables such as broad beans," says Álvaro.
Thrips have thus become another challenge to overcome by the agricultural sector in Elche, where, as in many other areas of Spain, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find laborers for agriculture or to make sure to have the generational replacement necessary to guarantee the sector's sustainability. "I've been working in the fields since I was a child with my father, who was also an agricultural producer, and I am fortunate because I really like what I do; but I understand why my children tell me that they are not interested in doing this hard and often difficult job.
"Still, we cannot forget that this is where the food we eat comes from, and politicians and governments should do more to make our work easier; to give young and old people a motivation to go into agricultural production so that food supply can be guaranteed," says the grower.