Andy Nelson posts from Spain

Andy Nelson of The Packer files this from Spain....


VALENCIA, SPAIN - April 18-19 I was the guest of IVEX, an organization that promotes exports from the Valencia region of Spain. While in Valencia, I was, thanks to a connection made by New York-based importer Luke Sears, able to spend an afternoon in the company of a citrus exporter, Javier (last name in hotel room, alas.) Sears said he is the most knowledgeable citrus guy in Spain. Javier said he and other exporters were surprised the California freeze did not have a bigger impact on Spain. Very few Spanish navels, it turns out, were needed to supplement California supplies, he said. Because the fruit was not promoted as much, due to the freeze, expected shortages did not materialize, he said.

On our drive north of Valencia, we saw little other than citrus groves, mainly clementines. (The major orange-growing regions are further south, Javier said.) The citrus-growing region in Spain stretches for 600 miles along the coast of the Mediterranean. It´s all about the sea, Javier said. Just a few miles inland, on the other side of the coastal mountains, it´s too cold to grow citrus. Inland winters, he said, are worse than winters in New York. Javier´s company specializes in clementines. And while growth in the U.S. market has leveled off, the company is turning its eyes toward China, where the company shipped clems this year for the first time ever (two or three containers, with more in future years, he predicted.)

On the drive back to Valencia, Javier showed me the huertas, tiny patches of land (an acre at most) divided by irrrigation channels, still in use, dug by the Moors in...well, before the 11th Century, when the Christians booted them out. The huertas are farmed by individual farmers who typically specialize in a certain vegetable, as their fathers, grandfathers, etc. before them did. A field of romaine, followed by a field of onions, etc. I saw one old farmer weeding by hand. Another walked his field, pushing a portable tiller, what they call a ¨mechanical bull.¨ The rich, black earth on the puertas could be sold elsewhere for fertilizer, Javier said, maybe only partly in jest. The quality of the vegetables is unparalleled, he said. They are sold to the best restaurants in Valencia, which, I was told by one of the food writers in my tour group, are attracting some of the world´s top chefs.