The president of the Provincial Council of León, Gerardo Álvarez Courel, assured this Friday that El Bierzo is the second largest producer of chestnuts in Spain after Galicia, thanks to the 18,000 hectares of cultivation distributed throughout the region. This was declared on the occasion of the inauguration of 15th Biocastanea Chestnut Fairwhich brings together 40 exhibitors in Carracedelo and plans to receive around 10,000 people, since it is an event “perfectly carried out and implemented within the framework of those obligatory for those who defend the agri-food sector of the province”, as this is the case of the provincial institution which “always supports initiatives that guarantee that local products have the appropriate impact and outlet in production”.
In this sense, Gerardo Álvarez Courel highlighted the institution’s “support” for quality labels, designations of origin and protected geographical indications, through, for example, the contribution of 250,000 euros since 2018 for the fight against chestnut waspwhich makes “the crops better”.
In his commitment to the future of the sector, the president of the Provincial Council highlighted the Chestnut Technology Center, in the town of Quintana de Fuserosin which almost half a million euros were invested, of which the provincial institution contributed 75 percent from the recovery funds and the remaining 25 percent to the Junta de Castilla y León.
Likewise, he highlighted the investment of 3.2 million euros for the plantation of chestnut trees of the Parele variety which will extend to Igüeña, Bembibre, Folgoso de la Ribera, Noceda del Bierzo, Torre del Bierzo and Vilalgatón ” as a symbol of a determined commitment so that in El Bierzo Alto more than 10,000 chestnut trees are planted”, as well as so that “a predominant variety in the region 18,000 hectares of chestnut trees in the region.
In this sense, the mayor of Carrracedelo estimated more than eight million kilos collected in the provincewhich led him to affirm that El Bierzo is “on the path to the recovery of an important sector” such as chestnut cultivation, since, for example, there is a company located in Trabadelo that has more than three million kilos of frozen foods.
“There is already significant progress and this helps us to say that obviously we must continue to grow and that logically, in the absence of a processing industry, there are a number of companies that are doing it at a almost artisanal level”, said Valcarce, convinced that “there is “We must seek and demand an industrial and professional impulse in the region to achieve a great undertaking”, says Ical.
For his part, the director of Bierzo chestnut tablePablo Linares, celebrated its 15 years of existence with the presence of 40 exhibitors “all of whom have to do with the sector” and come from different regions of Spain and even Portugal, which shows that the event It is “an absolute reference” and places Bierzo in “the epicenter of chestnuts”, which “places the region in a market in which it is difficult to make a name for yourself”.
Finally, the territorial delegate of the Junta de Castilla y León in the province, Eduardo Diego, was convinced of the “consolidation” of Biocastanea, which “is already a reference for agri-food product fairs in the province”, that it represents “the demonstration that things are being done well” despite “there being problems like diseases or the need to attract and generate companies that take advantage of the chestnut tree to transform and market it from the region”.
