TRADE AND MARKETING Potato growing in Cartagena stands out in the market T he first Spanish first-early potatoes to be shipped to Northern Europe come from the early potato areas around the important South-Spanish port of Cartagena. The Mediterranean maritime climate protects the cultivation of potatoes with reasonably-high temperatures in winter. Water comes from the mountains and the government has invested heavily in catching and distributing it across the 36,000-hectare agricultural area around the city. But the climate in this part of Spain clearly also has its rough side. Particularly in January, when the earliest potatoes have just emerged, heavy winds combined with heavy rainfall and sometimes even hail, can hit the crops heavily. It was quite bad again this year, José Beltran tells us. Beltran is a well-known potato merchant from the village of Daya Vieja, an hour’s drive from Alicante. All in all, he is still extremely happy with the early harvest. In the end, all went well as far as the yield was concerned and this also applied to the quality. Add to that the attractive prices and you’ll have satisfied growers. Intensive cultivation The first-early cultivation around Cartagena starts in mid November with the planting of the first potatoes. Traditionally, Cartagena is a market garden area, which exports spinach, strawberries, almonds, lemons and melons to all of Europe very early in the year. The area can roughly be divided into two agricultural areas. The earliest cultivation takes place on red, volcanic soil, for which Cyprus and Malta are also noted. These volcanic areas are near the sea, around the village of Al Algar. There are large plots of potatoes in this microclimate. It is here that Beltran likes to buy his potatoes, because he is then able to offer his customers fresh potatoes of the same quality. A lot of seed per hectare The first-early harvest in Cartagena starts in early April. The yield is then around 35 tons per hectare. It is very expensive to grow potatoes in this region. Irrigation water alone already costs 42 eurocents per cubic metre. In order to be as economical with the water as possible, growers mainly use drip irrigation. In order to grow as many table potatoes in the desired consumption size as possible, Beltran advises his growers to plant 3,500 kilograms of seed per hectare. The total cultivation costs are 8,000 euros per hectare, according to the many growers. It is remarkable that in this region in mid April, supermarkets like Carrefour mostly sell French potatoes from last year’s harvest. Quality potatoes lifted manually Beltran, who markets 50,000 tons of potatoes annually, picks varieties that he can use both locally and for export. ‘When you can only serve one market, you can’t build up a sustainable relationship with your growers’. The earlier we José Beltran (l) and Inácio Ramalho are satisfied with this year’s yield. 24 Potato World 2014 • number 1 Pagina 23
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