The Valencian grower Vicente Guillot is one of the most knowledgeable at national level when it comes to parsley cultivation; from his urban garden in Campanar, he supplies this product to all Mercadona stores, except for those in the Canary Islands.
Guillot explains that he founded the company that bears his name in 1978, basing it in the lands he owns in Campanar; later, he acquired more in Benimàmet, Massarrojos and Borbotó, from which it ships all parsley packed by the fresh cut intersupplier Verdifresh.
Until 1990, he supplied Mercadona with cabbages and lettuce, afterwards only lettuce and parsley bunches, and in the late 90s he started testing with Verdifresh to produce a type of parsley that would conform to the standards to be marketed fresh, in bags. "It needs more density, many leaves and a very high stem, so I adapted to the plant's needs," he explains.
Today, Vicente Guillot has about 40 hectares in the city of Valencia and surroundings, both owned and in rental, and rotations are made based on production forecasts. In fallow plots, he plants corn or beans, which he grounds to obtain a natural fertilizer.
His company produces five tonnes of parsley per week all year round, reaching peaks of ten or eleven tonnes per week in Christmas periods, and its entire production is for Verdifresh.
The product that comes out from his fields is then sold in Mercadona supermarkets of the entire Iberian Peninsula in 40 gram bags.
All parsley marketed by Vicente Guillot SL is self-produced; a process he handles with the help of five employees (one of them being his son), although at different times of the year he has a staff of up to ten to twelve workers.
Guillot, who had to "unlearn how to produce parsley bunches to obtain thin stems, greater density and more leaves," says that the soil preparation and harvesting are done manually and, after selection, washing and preparation at the warehouse, Verdifresh handles the packaging.
Source: lasprovincias.es
