Asparagus producers from San Juan want to add value to their product and, since last year, have been working to link the quality of their asparagus to its origin and local production know-how through the collective construction of a designation of origin seal or a geographical indication seal.
According to producers, even thought there are no official surveys they estimate that, currently, there are some 350 hectares devoted to this productive activity, which in the the early 90s occupied 600 hectares, i.e. 40% of the national area, according to information recorded in the Diario de Cuyo's Green Supplement.
For nearly 30 years (1970-2010) this crop generated revenues of around US $ 3 million from the domestic and international markets. Nearly 5% of the 2,400 tons that San Juan sold annually were of a larger caliber and were shipped abroad, mainly to the European Union. The bulk of production was devoted to the domestic market and the quality of the San Juan's asparagus became a reference point for producers from other areas, such as Buenos Aires and Cordoba. In the 80s, the Hermann family and other producers helped make asparagus cultivation in the area so relevant that the Medano de Oro Consortium exporting group was created.
On Wednesday April 20, 2016 the producers of asparagus in San Juan met with Lucia Tejada, an official of the Office Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications of the Ministry of Agricultural Industries, at the Center for Community Integration of Medano de Oro.
The meeting was also attended by the head of the Program for Integral Assistance in Added Value for Agricultural foods in Cuyo -Procal-, Mr. Alonso, the municipal department's reference, Mariela Arancibia, as well as by two officials of the Ministry of Local Production, Dr. Elena Schivonne, who is responsible for the quality projects linked to the origin of the Uecppa SJ, and engineer Juan Manuel Gioia, the director of irrigation.
This week, the minister of production, Andres Diaz Cano, requested Procal's technical assistance to certify that the asparagus' quality is due to its geographical origin and production tradition, so that it complies with National Law N | 25,380, and can achieve the Geographical Indication seal.
Hopefully this product that Medano de Oro has been exporting for more than 4 decades will soon achieve the recognition and appreciation it deserves.
Source: diariodecuyo.com.ar