The signing ceremony

This is the goal of the collaboration agreement signed in January by the Regional Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Maritina Hernández and the President of CRDO “Kaki Ribera del Xúquer”, Vicente Monzó, with a budget of more than 550,000 euros.

Maritina Hernández explains that the initiative “is attempting to provide new avenues for growing and processing persimmon, new high-quality varieties and rootstocks that will prevent a seasonal concentration of supply, improvements in marketing and fundamentally, in the returns of growers”.

At the same time, she points out that the agreement “is part of a strategy from the Regional Ministry of Agriculture to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in Valencia by launching research projects for crops that are close to the farmers and production but that also include research for the processing industry in order to be more competitive when it comes to selling our products”.

The Regional Minister emphasised that the results obtained from this research project, which has been signed for a three-year term, “will be automatically passed on to all growers, both via the D.O as well as via the channels of the Regional Ministry itself. In this way we will be able to ensure that the benefits can be quickly shared by all links in the value chains for production and sales of persimmon throughout the Region”.

Persimmon is a quality fruit that is a source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and is suitable for a Mediterranean diet good for the heart. The crop has increased considerably in the Valencia Region in recent years.

Specifically, planted area has increased by 140% since the year 2000 and now covers 3,165 hectares yielding a crop in excess of 50,000 tonnes.

This crop expansion is due to the appearance of a new trend in consuming the only variety under the CRDO seal, the Rojo Brilliante, native to the Ribera area and now representing 98% of the persimmon crop in the region.

Fundamentally, the keys to this success were: choosing a new variety that was easy to eat and attractive; using very careful cultivation techniques that in many cases had been adapted from ones common in the cultivation of citrus fruit; launching the fruit onto the market with the denomination of origin “kaki persimmon” once a technical procedure had been developed for the post harvest phase to eliminate the astringency of the fruit while maintaining its firmness. However, the almost exclusive cultivation of this type of persimmon is provoking a concentration of supply between October and December limiting its commercial opportunities.

This is why it is important to look at alternatives for growing and processing persimmon for the food industry both for purees (used as a base in juice production), as well as for juices themselves, given that the project also will try to apply preservation techniques to extend the sales period.

The project will also look at improving the quality and profitability of the crops by means of an in-depth study of plantations, their nutritive needs, fertilisation and irrigation.

In 2008, of the total crop covered by the denomination, which amounted to 18,000 tonnes, 60% was destined for export (10,800 tonnes) and the remaining 7.200 tonnes went to the domestic market.