Associate producers

Along with his wife and son – plus extra help during harvest – Sergio Lopez Berbel runs a 2-hectare greenhouse near Granada, growing the Dutch variety of cucumber. The farm has been organic since 2005.

Bioalgarrobo began life as a cooperative but now operates as a company, working with a diverse range of producers in the Málaga area, many of them functioning on too small a scale to economically manage the logistics of packing and transporting fresh fruit and vegetables themselves.

A cooperative of producers centred on one 5-hectare farm growing vegetables, citrus and olives, but also buying from other small farmers in the surrounding area. Biomilanes mainly provide produce for a box scheme in the Málaga area, and have opened their own shop in the centre of the city.

Jose Miguel Castilla is a small scale farmer cultivating the Bacon and Fuerte varieties of avocado, which are ready for harvest at the start of the growing season.

After Maria Dolores Climent inherited around one-third of a hectare from her parents in the 1980s, her husband decided to begin organic persimmon production there. More than thirty years later those trees are still providing fruit, making it probably the first and oldest organic persimmon farm in the whole of Spain.

Antonio Florido and his daughter Cristina together run a farm growing dragon fruit, in a quarter-hectare greenhouse as well as outdoors. They also cultivate the higo chumbo (Barbary fig or prickly pear), a crop which has been grown in Andalucía for hundreds of years but is now threatened by disease.

Asparagus is a crop very sensitive to heat and humidity, and requires harvesting at the right moment. These three small farms deliver their asparagus to Bioalgarrobo SL just 2 hours after harvesting, where it is refrigerated and transported in the best possible condition.

Cooperativa Horticola Sierra was set up in 1996, in response to concern over the contamination of local aquifers with nitrites. In 2005 they were one of the founders of a local government program to supply schools and nurseries with organic produce, and until the end of the program were the elected farmers’ representative at the Andalucía Ministry of Agriculture. Horticola Sierra continue to supply organic food to a number public schools and several nurseries.

With his father and one part-time worker, Jose Antonio Lares Ruiz runs a farm of 2.5 hectares in Coín, near Málaga. The land is divided between fig, mango and pomegranate production, new trees that gave their first harvests in the last few years and are increasing production annually.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Sebastian Marín runs Finca Los Frailes, a 14-hectare farm that is one of the earliest annual producers of mandarins, peaches, apricots and other stone fruits. Sebastian is also passionate about grapes, and has been recovering old grape varieties on his land.

A small scale producer working on half a hectare, located in Benamargosa near the town of Vélez-Málaga. Angel Palma also grows lemon, mango and plantain trees.

Rafael Robles runs a farm of around 2.5 hectares growing a variety of vegetables in Villafranco de Guadalhorce, to the west of Málaga. He produces early season cauliflower and also grows broccoli, leek, artichokes and onions.

Jaime Rodriguez manages around 12 hectares of land and grows a diverse range of crops including cauliflower, pumpkin, potatoes, onions, melon and leek. He also raises olive trees and keeps 150 beehives on his land, for pollination of the crops and honey production.

Manolo Serra manages a small farm with approximately half a hectare of lemon trees and a greenhouse of around 4000 square meters, producing organic papayas. The farm is managed almost exclusively by Manolo himself, with seasonal help from outside workers or family members.

A farm of about 3 hectares located on the road to Ardales, on sloping land that must be managed and harvested by hand. Kumquat is a citrus fruit rich in vitamin C, collected during the winter months.

A small farm producing around 3 hectares of different vegetables, mainly sweet potatoes and courgettes grown outdoors. The farm is in Nerja, a beautiful village on the Málaga coast.