Carlos Jordan It is known in the Almeria region for being a agro-influencer. He has over 25,000 followers on his TikTok account, which he started a day after going viral on Facebook for throwing watermelons to the pigs. “A friend planted them and they were paid six cents a kilo. He told me to add them to him, and with the courage that the story gave me, I went to record it on video.” He boom on this social network was such that he was encouraged to open an account on TikTok, in which he recounts his daily struggle as a farmer. Last year, he He also fed all his zucchini produce to the goats.: those he had planted on two hectares with his wife, also a farmer. “I don’t like others to earn money at my expense, with my work.” Neither for him, nor for many other farmers.
The Almerian has 33 years old and is originally from Láujar de Andarax, a small town in the Alpujarra, although he is based in Alcolea. He has been working professionally in the field since 2012. And the other day he got very angry again when his friend called him and told him that the 2.5 tons of peppers, after being rejected by one buyer, he had taken them to another: he offered to buy them for only 0.88 euros per kilo.
“When he told me the price and they made him dizzy… That’s just the way they treat you when they offer you prices that low, we’re going to make losses, very below cost production,” he explains to EL ESPAÑOL.
His friend “who was just as angry” did not want to speak out, but wanted to protest against what was happening. So he entrusted him with the truck loaded with peppers and they took him “to the field of another friend, who has many goats.” The animals started eating again… and he did it all while recording himself on video explaining the reasons. The news was picked up Almeria 24hTV.
“That’s courage. If it’s the law of supply and demand, why the hell does it come to market at other prices? Because then those peppers are sold in the supermarket for more than 2.5 euros. And in Germany, between 5 and 8 euroswho sent me the pictures with the prices. “Who takes the money?” he asks.
This year, Carlos, known on TikTok as @CurroCurro, planted peppers of variety Lamuyo, the reds, and eggplants. “It’s a lot of fabric that they pay you between 20 and 60 cents a kilo for and then you see it in the supermarket for more than two euros. But that’s how it is, so I won’t make any money, but neither will the others. with my work.” He says it knowingly: last year he was about to throw in the towel. He didn’t, but he ended up selling the two hectares he had planted with zucchini that the goats also fed.
@cortacurro too bad but that’s it #agriculture🚜🌱 #almeria🌅 #nohayderecho😜😜 #honrrado ♬ original sound – Corta Curro
This campaign, in principle, shows signs of improvement. “It zucchini and the tomato They pay a little better, and since they are now opening up imports, prices will increase,” he says with resignation. He stresses that he does not understand “how from one week to the next they give you a reduction of between 30 and 40 cents, for example, for tomatoes. They are now sold at 0.80 euros, but two weeks ago they were at 0:30when the consumer receives them more or less always at the same price of 2.5 euros.”
-Do you like being a farmer?
-I like it, it’s professional, but you have a lot of disappointments.
Carlos takes off and begins to list: “What if the pests, the prices of seeds, the phytosanitary treatments, which exploded… The last four years, the costs of all that invoices They have tripled or quadrupled, and the prices at which we farmers sell are more or less the same.” Whichever way you look at it, the accounts are negative.
Without forgetting, he says, “the watermelons,” he emphasizes. “To the farmers of Almeria and other regions, they make us huge damage watermelons that come from Morocco and Senegal, which do not follow the same method or the same controls during their processing in the field. They compete with an advantage over us.” Last year, his friend David, like many others, “ended up betraying them. And there you have it, gentlemen, that’s it,” he concludes.
