A product of excellence, the possibility of certifying the origin and young farmers to bet on sweet potatoes, in the long term, and help to value it, especially the Lyra variety, typical of Aljezur.
For the minister of Agriculture Assunção Cristas, who, this Saturday, officially inaugurated the Sweet Potato Festival of Aljezur, these are factors that make the production of this product appetizing and that lead her to appeal to local producers to “make the certification, to produce more", since, "certainly there will be funds to support".
An appeal that was accompanied by a revelation: there were more young farmers in the Algarve to enroll in the last Community Support Framework than in the group that preceded it, and in a number four times higher than the national average.
«In previous community frameworks, on average, 100 farmers were installed and, in this framework [QREN 2007/13], we already have more than 400 young farmers registered. This is very positive and a sign that the young people are beginning to see an interesting alternative for their lives here», revealed Assunção Cristas, on the sidelines of the visit to the event.
The minister now hopes that some of these new producers will bet on sweet potatoes. «We have here an excellent product and we can have not only more production, but also greater appreciation of the production that already exists, when producers make the mandatory certification to obtain the Protected Geographical Indication», he considered.
«We have the possibility of making this product, this jewel of our agriculture, which is the Aljezur's sweet potato, more and more visible. For that, we need the farmers to make the certification, to produce more and, of course, there will be funds to support», considered the minister.
One of the paths pointed out is the transformation of this product «to have a significant addition of value». “We saw many innovative products here, both sweet and savory, which have sweet potato incorporated. There are many possibilities and what I notice in this type of event is that, from year to year, there are new things and I have already seen some here», he believes.
Before going to the Sweet Potato Festival in Aljezur, where she arrived aboard a small train, the minister visited Paços do Concelho, where she signed the municipality's Honor Book and received, from the hands of the mayor José Amarelinho, the first copy of the book “Aljezur, O Coração da Costa Vicentina”, a work scheduled for public presentation in December.
The Festival, which started on Friday, goes on until tomorrow, offering the chance to buy certified sweet potatoes, to taste a thousand and one delicacies – sweet and savory – based on tuber, to buy liquors, wines, sausages, sweets , crafts, and watching a lot of entertainment.
Click here to learn about the program complete.
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