In a ceremony held this Thursday in Rome, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officially designated the raisin production system in La Axarquía, Malaga, as one of the new Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).
For its part, the Association of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol-Axarquía trusts that this distinction will help generate "new policies" and allow it to receive the aid that it has been waiting for.
Several agricultural groups acknowledge that there has been a fall in their productivity throughout this decade, and that the viability of the product's cultivation in the province is becoming tougher to achieve.
In this regard, the president of the eastern Association of Municipalities and mayor of Iznate, the socialist Gregorio Campos, stated that strategies are needed to allow the sector to get back on the right track.
He said this in the presence of the territorial delegate of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Malaga, Javier Salas, and the mayor of Almáchar, José Gámez (IU), during an event held in the Axarquía in support of the region's raisins, attended by personalities such as Juan Gámez, "founding member of the Moscatel Association."
"This Thursday has been one of the most important days for La Axarquía; for its agricultural, social, and economic and tourist development," said Campos, who said that this is the right moment for authorities and official bodies to take advantage of this recognition.
At the moment, the production of grapes in La Axarquia as a whole (not just the one intended for the production of raisins) is losing ground to other, much more profitable agricultural varieties, such as subtropical fruits, avocados and mangoes, and even olives, mostly due to the fall in prices at origin.
Source: laopiniondemalaga.es
