He Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Julián Martínez Lizán, valued the production of olive oil from the Sierra de Alcaraz, a region in which there are five olive oil mills “which is a reference for its quality and which, in a year of good harvest, can grind approximately 15.5 million kilos of olives, which represents a 21 percent of everything milled in the province of Albacete. Concerning the varieties of the region, they are Picual, Salgar, Cornicabra and to a lesser extent Arbequina, Picudo and Chamomile.
This was explained this Saturday in the show ‘Agropopular’ by César Lumbreras, on Cadena COPE, produced and broadcast since Alcaraz, in the presence of its mayor, Pedro Jesús Valero, the local priest, representatives of the Agropecuaria Ecológica Sierra de Alcaraz oil mill, which produces organic EVOO, as well as tourism technicians from the town hall, the Commission reported in a press release.
Julián Martínez Lizán recalled that Oils from the Sierra de Alcaraz It is one of the three collective brands of Castile-La Mancha with Campos de Hellín oils and Alcudia Valley oils “We don’t want them to stay there, but we are working to see if they can become quality figures that we add the four DOP oils that we already have in the region and which are the PDO Montes de Toledo, PDO oil from La AlcarriaDOP Campo de Calatrava Oil and DOP Campo de Montiel Oil.
The advisor also estimated that “we are the second largest olive oil producing region in our country, behind Andalusia. We produce just over 10 percent of the national total. And the olive tree already exceeds the vineyard in area in the region with 452,000 hectares and some 83,000 olive growers who work them.
Alcaraz attraction
For the advisor, “the production of olive oil must be a driver of economic development for this region with other elements such as tourism in order to promote sustainable rural development that makes known all the good things we have on the territory”.
In this sense, Julián Martínez Lizán highlighted the cultural and artistic heritage of Alcaraz “which houses in its Plaza Mayor one of the most beautiful and important historical-artistic complexes in the province of Albacete and Castilla-La Mancha and which is also the birthplace of the eminent architect Andrés de Vandelvira .”
To all this, the councilor added other attractions such as its greenway, its carpets and the sanctuary of the Virgin of Cortés, one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Spain.
