A total of 230 of the 300 residents of Cabacés (Priorat) are members of the agricultural cooperative. People make a living from rural areas. José Antonio Robles, the organization’s president, explains that it comes from the sole production of oil, “the only crop that is well adapted to this terrain and this climate.” But drought is punishing this corner of the country Siurana extra virgin origin designation“This year has left many local families without income,” Robles continues. Harvest will be in 2023 80% lower than normal and this has already strained the cooperative The price of oil increased by 73 percent. “Last year we sold a 5-litre bottle for 29 euros… Now we had to increase it to 50 euros,” he elaborates.
Olive oil is a very clear example to understand what it means. climate inflation. Due to poor harvests in recent years, the retail price of the product increased by 73% in a single year. HE effect drought and high temperatures It was decisive in the production areas, because in addition to reducing the amount of liters produced, the existing stocks were also depleted because the olive groves could not produce as many olives as when irrigated.
They can account for this well in Cabacés. “Last year the water ran out and they closed our house” Margalef Dam, We supply ourselves from here. Trees that were not watered adequately could not bloom and therefore olives didn’t even form“says the head of the cooperative. “And the few that managed to get ahead have ripened poorly and now produce very little oil,” the producer argues, as he oversees the picking of olives from one of his farms already located in the heart of the Montsant mountain range.
“We were under the costs”
“Now that’s true, we are on top of the costsbut before, two years ago, we were way down,” explains Robles. In any case, he emphasizes, it is not producers or agricultural cooperatives who set the supermarket price. “What people pay in the city is intermediaries decided“he remembers. If they had increased the prices on their direct sales in the cooperative store, it almost became a matter of survival. It would have been (and still is) difficult for the business and the families living in Cabacés to survive. “In a normal year, 1 million to 1 million people live here here “We would obtain between 2 million kilos of olives… This year it will remain around 250 thousand kilos.”
production cost In Cabacés plots these are high and difficult to reduce. “It has been studied that from the moment the olive blossom appears to the time the fruit reaches the mill it costs each farmer approximately 33 cents per pound of olives,” says Robles. This is because the farms are small and the terrain is steep so the work has to be done manually. mechanization is difficult. Although these amounts are not climate-related, they are also reflected in the price the consumer pays for oil.
An ecological product
One of the solutions preferred by Cabacés farmers to reduce these expenses is ecological production. “In this environment, the biodiversity of forests alone is helped by the trees and the fruits that grow from them. no need for fertilizer “It’s products that are used elsewhere,” Robles says. “We can grow organically produced crops without any prior processing,” he adds.
Recommended by Agri-Food Research and Technology Institute (IRTA)Farmers of Cabacés, a research center affiliated with the Generalitat, are working on another side to ensure that the climate crisis does not punish them even further. “We are growing here three kinds of olives. Arbequina is the most common. But there is also ‘rojal’, which our ancestors planted in the coldest spots. Olives that withstand low temperatures better and it yields a different, hotter, spicier oil,” says Robles, explaining that there are already many farmers in the town who have decided to plant ‘rojal’ olive trees to save the species. “There are also ‘niggers’ who are now in the minority.”
With all this and a oil tourism promotion program Cabacés, who manages the technique of the Núria Bru cooperative, is trying to secure the future of the cooperative and prevent the escape of young families. “If we are the guarantors of the region, the ones who have to ensure that these landscapes stay that way, we must act now,” says Robles.