Spain's agricultural revolution: mouth-watering fruit and vegetables

In the southeast coast of Spain, a few kilometres from Alicante’s golden beaches, the incredible Mediterranean climate allows the production of fruits with excellent flavour and nutritional properties.

During this episode of Here We Grow, we’ll take you from the Autonomous Community of Valencia to the very south of Spain, in Andalusia, to discover some characteristic fruits that led to an agricultural revolution in the country.

Low precipitation, high levels of sunshine, and a high number of days with no clouds at all are the perfect conditions to grow one of the world's most valuable pomegranates: the Granada Mollar de Elche, which has the Protected Designation of Origin label.

It’s a very specific variety of pomegranate, different from all the others, thanks to its particular sweetness and other characteristics, as Susi Bonet, commercial director of the Cooperativa Cambayas, explains to us.

“This pomegranate is different from all the others because of its exterior and interior colour. It has a pinkish colour on the outside, this pomegranate is never red and inside the seed is red. The seed is sweet, and soft, and it can be eaten. Not like other varieties which are also eaten a lot all over Europe, in which the seed cannot be chewed. This pomegranate is pink on the outside, it is never red, and inside the seed is red".  

Once the pomegranates have been picked on the field, they are taken to the pack houses, where they are carefully selected, packaged, and kept at a temperature of 4 to 8 °C. Preparation and packaging at source also guarantees traceability: the packaging in which they are dispatched must bear the particulars that are mandatory for the Protected Designation of Origin and the origin of the product, as prescribed