After more than ten years of research, an improved indigenous variety of asparagus will be officially presented this spring which will have a significant impact on crops in the Huétor Tájar area and the rest of the Granada plain. The Secretary General for the Regulatory Body of Specific Denomination for Asparagus from Huétor Tájar, Juan Antonio Espejo, thinks that this improved variety will mean that areas where this indigenous crop is grown will be revitalised and extended. “This year more that 8,000 plants of the improved variety will be grown. Ownership rights for this plant material have been granted by the Regulatory Body to Cesura (Sociedad Cooperativa Centro Sur – Central South Cooperative Society) who are responsible for propagating the number of plants.”
This is a very hardy asparagus variety with a high yield compared to the North American hybrid varieties. It has many other advantages such as its long-life, with a plant lasting for 15 to 20 years, its evenness of growth, its improved resistance to disease, the ability to harvest remarkably early and improved resistance to frost.
This new variety, whose name will be revealed at its official presentation, is the result of a totally natural process of selection and crossing of indigenous, extraordinarily hardy asparagus varieties from Huétor Tájar.

It is a unique octoploid asparagus variety registered in the Spanish Plant Variety Office. Green-purple asparagus from Huétor Tájar is earmarked nearly always for preserves and is sold in the domestic market. The most important markets are those of Andalusia, Extremadura, Castile La Mancha and Madrid where it is considered a gourmet product and hence always sold at high prices.
Around 110 hectares have been appointed by the Specific Denomination, tended by around 140 farmers. Total production for an average year lies between 250,000 to 3,000,000 kilos.
According to Juan Antonio Espejo, “The green-purple asparagus from Huétor Tájar is a minority crop. Approximately 8-10% of this type is grown and the rest is North American hybrids. It is very similar to the variety “triguero silvestre”, 8-9 millimetres in size. This variety has been grown here for over a century thanks to the selection made by the farmers of this area of Granada.”