For the last 3 years, the Spanish company J. García Carrión, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, has tried to produce pineapple in the fields of Cartagena. To achieve this, they imported 6,000 seedlings of pineapple from Guatemala. The first phase of the project was conducted in greenhouses and has been a complete success. José García Carrión and his wife proudly presented a pineapple weighing more than 2 kilos, which had been produced in the Murcia region, at a meeting that was attended, among others, by D. Ramón Luis Valcárcel and several ministers. The second phase of the research aims to shorten the production cycle of this plant to 8 months to avoid the cold weather that makes it difficult for the plants to reproduce.
Growing the pineapples in greenhouse presents no problems, but the challenge is to grow them in large areas outdoors, which, if achieved, would be an innovation worldwide. According to José Garcia Carrion, they could plant up to 10,000 hectares benefiting 45,000 farmers. The aim is to ensure the supply of juice and in turn export pineapples to other countries.
Spain is the world's first consumer of pineapple juice with 300 million litres. The company already bet on cultivating oranges in Huelva years ago and currently has 1,500 hectares of their own and 5,000 acres of associated farmers.
Spain is the third largest producer of citrus "with a higher quality than that of Brazil and the United States," says Luciano García Carrión, who is responsible for internationalizing the company. "England has replaced the juice from Brazil for that of Huelva on the shelves of major clients, which gives our company great pride," he concluded.
Source: Efe