A wealth that has been diversified thanks to alliances between producers
- The brothers Kiko and Pablo Fernández Salinas live in the council of San Isidro del Pinar de Cáseda (Navarra), where the Finca Bardea is located. “We came here from Pamplona about 28 years ago, fleeing the city and factory work, looking for the countryside,” explains Kiko. The production of oil and grapes began in a conventional model, but at the initiative of a nearby, or contaminated, organic winery, the two brothers began to gradually introduce themselves to organic production: “18 years ago we passed the vineyards to the ecological, then the olive trees, then the almonds… It didn’t make sense for me that in the morning they were herbicide in a plantation and then pass in the afternoon to the ecological,” says Kiko.
Currently, the Fernández brothers produce legumes on land above the Bardenas, mainly chickpeas and lentils, grapes, olives, almonds and cereal. “We have about 18 hectares of olive oil and we produce about 20,000 liters of oil a year,” he explains. Cascantera is the closest mill that works in organic. The grapes are used to produce wine, but until recently most are sold to local wineries. However, the Biba Ardoak project, which emerged from the collaboration of small wineries, also began producing sales wine about four years ago. “Before, there was no other such structure in Navarre with the producers.”
The decision to start producing legumes also involved a cooperative project: “We used to produce cereal to eat, but the moment we were thinking about starting to make legumes for people’s consumption, the Hazialde cooperative was created, which gave us the momentum we needed.” The project, launched by the organic producers of legumes in Navarre, has been fundamental, as Kiko stressed, to the collaboration in the acquisition of the necessary equipment for the cleaning and packaging of these crops.
Latest news, almonds
As in most of Navarre, cereal monoculture predominates in the Cáseda zone, with the minority opting for ecological monoculture. “The trend is widespread across Europe: the growing size of production, working with heavy machinery… we are few exceptions.”
Like small productions, the farmer adds that the wooded masses are gradually disappearing. In the bardenas, however, they have almonds on a plot of about 15 hectares and also collect those of the most nearby producers: “This is the final product we have started to market, organic almond.” There is no place nearby to remove the nuts’ shell, and the need to send them abroad encourages them. “It makes no sense to collect almonds if to justify them we have to send them to Murcia. We will also have to think about a system between producers…”.
