The Regulatory Council of the Safran de La Manche Designation of Origin faces the 2024 campaign, which could begin next week, with better prospects than previous years since the weather, for the moment, is favorable.
Despite the critical moment that the harvest is going throughseriously affected by the drastic drop in production last year where 280.81 kilos were collected, the lowest figure in the last 11 years and 40.24% lower than that of the 2022 harvest, and taking into account the fact that the average of the last ten years (2013 -2023) is 549.7 kilos and the continuing trend of decreasing yields since 2013, the feeling of farmers, for the moment, is more positive.
The spring rains, the mild temperatures of June, as well as a cooler autumn and a little more precipitation, although with a very irregular distribution, have lifted the morale a little in a sector which nevertheless continues to suffer problems of historical structural structures. such as the absence of a market for certified bulbs, the minimal mechanization of processes, the lack of generational change and the high demand for labor, greatly aggravated in recent years by climate change.
Problems that lead the Board of Directors of the Regulatory Council, chaired by producer Valentina Cabra Carrasco, to insist, once again, on the need for the Administration to get involved and act. measures that guarantee the future of saffron in general, and the differentiated quality brand Azafrán de La Mancha in particular, through a specific plan equipped with the necessary economic support that allows the recovery of the harvest in the shortest possible time.
This is what the employers declared at their last meeting, before the start of the campaign, during which they learned, among other things, that this year the cultivated area registered in the DOP should be similar to that of last year, around 90 hectares, although it should be noted that the average for the period 2013-2023 is 104.9 hectares, so reaching the historical average would be a complete achievement.
And the progressive reduction in areas devoted to saffron production, including its extinction in regions where its presence was characteristic, is one of the historical threats to this culture, along with massive imports of saffron from other origins; the high demand for labor accompanied by minimal mechanization of cultivation and the transformation process (peeling and roasting); the small size of the plots; the limited integration of producers into national and international marketing systems and the social and family character of this culture.
Regarding the situation of the Regulatory Council, the president of the Denomination of Origin, Valentina Cabra Carrasco, assured that if production did not recover during this campaign, its critical situation would worsen even more than this year. 2024 has been extremely difficult economically with the action reduced to a minimum, since the quotas of producers and packers depend on the total production of each harvest, the only source of income for the management and infrastructure of this organization.
It should be remembered that since 2018, in which there was a record harvest in the saffron production area of La Mancha, with 903.7 kilos collected, production has decreased: 606.5 kilos in 2019, 451 kilos in 2020, 346.8 in 2021, 462.15 in 2022 and 280.81 in 2023.
The Regulatory Council Foundation for the Saffron de La Manche Protected Designation of Origin is the organization which represents, defends, guarantees, researches, develops and promotes saffron protected by this quality figure, the only spice of this nature which has this recognition at the national level.
The Foundation has more than 250 associated producers and nine registered packaging companies. The production area of La Mancha Saffron PDO includes 335 municipalities of Castile-La Manchaa, the entire province of Albacete, 38 municipalities of Ciudad Real, 173 municipalities of Cuenca and 38 municipalities of Toledo. The verification that producers and packagers, each in their field of activity, respect the specifications, is carried out by an independent and impartial control body, approved by the competent administration, and accredited by ENAC in the UNE standard. -EN ISO/. IEC 17065 or standard that replaces it.
