Portal de Caravaca de la Cruz
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The mayor, the Minister of Agriculture and general director of 'Estrella Levante' have visited plantation, where a permanent structure of six meters of height has been installed
Currently the hop cultivation in Spain does not cover the national demand
The tests developed in the hamlet of Los Prados by the Autonomous Community, through the Regional Agricultural Office, with crops of eight hop varieties are offering results in over other areas of Spain and, in addition, with high quality and organic production .
The mayor of Caravaca de la Cruz, José Francisco García;
the Minister of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries acting, Miguel Ángel de Amor, and the general director of Estrella Levante, Pedro Marín, have participated in some conferences on hops and have gone to the Agrarian Demonstration Center 'Las Nogueras de Above ', where the eight varieties are found on a plot of 2,000 square meters.
The councilors of Agriculture and the Environment, José Antonio Sánchez and Ana Belén Martínez, respectively, have also attended.
"It is great news for the rural environment the commitment that the Regional Government is making for the applied research to the agrarian activity, in this particular case, we also have the support of a large company such as Estrella Levante. Experimental that they are taking with species or varieties different from the traditional generate new and hopeful opportunities for the future of our agriculture ", has highlighted José Francisco García.
The Autonomous Community, after the initial results obtained, has extended the plantation and has installed a permanent structure of trellis, with posts of six meters high and with about ten floors between poles, which will serve for the entire life of the plantation, at least during the next 10 to 15 years.
Counselor Del Amor stressed that "the Ministry is considering the possibility of the indigenous production of hops as an alternative to other less profitable irrigated crops, which may have other limitations such as spring frosts in the high areas of the Region, limitations that do not this plant".
Del Amor added that "we have also placed ourselves in the most unfavorable situation of the crop to check its adaptation to the area and the possibility of producing it in ecological terms.They have not been applied or phytosanitary, or herbicides and the development and production obtained, in the first year, it seems to go over that of other areas of Spain and also with good qualities. "
Hops provide the degree of bitterness and aromas that beer requires for the content of lupulin, a substance made up of essential oils that give different aromas to beer, and resins that provide acids, responsible for their bitterness.
The hop cultivation in Spain does not cover the national demand.
It is a sector very conditioned by the demands of the brewing industry, to which most of the production is destined.
The rest is dedicated to the manufacture of cosmetic and therapeutic products.
The European Union is the world's largest producer of hops, with an average production of about 49,000 tonnes in the last five years.
Germany is the main producer country, with 70 percent, followed by the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia and Spain, where the cultivation area is concentrated in the province of León, with about 97 percent of the national total.
The Agrarian Demonstration Center 'Las Nogueras de Arriba', an agroforestry farm owned by the Autonomous Community, which manages the Comarcal Agrarian Office and represents a commitment to innovation to support the Agriculture sector in the Northwest Region.
This space has 14 experimental plots, where species that can adapt to the weather conditions of the Comarca are cultivated as an alternative or reinforcement to traditional crops.
Good results have already been proven with varieties of apple tree, with pistachio or truffle.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Caravaca de la Cruz
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