More Algarve oranges and products derived from it on the table of tourists in the region. This is an objective that is shared by both the Algarve Tourism Region and citrus producers in the region, who have already started to work together to achieve this goal.
The president of RTA João Fernandes, the regional director of Agriculture and Fisheries Pedro Valadas Monteiro, the association of producers AlgarOrange and hoteliers met recently to debate future collaborations.
The idea is to take advantage of the Algarve's main industry, tourism, to promote the Algarve's citrus fruit, an agricultural product of reference in the region and nationally.
«If a tourist sits at a table in an Algarve restaurant and asks for a natural orange juice, it should be served with the fruit produced in the region, a way of enhancing this agri-food product that occupies a planted area of 13 256 hectares in the Algarve, mostly in Silves, Tavira and Loulé», defended this Tuesday the RTA, following the meeting and the vision of the president of this entity.
«It is important that our citrus fruit migrate to the offer of the restaurant and hotel establishments in the region, being included in the tourist menus», says the president of RTA, João Fernandes.
The approach to the hotel sector and to foreigners who visit us is included in a strategy for the promotion and internationalization of the Algarve citrus fruit that AlgarOrange, an organization that brings together some of the largest citrus fruit producers in the region, applied to CRESC Algarve 2020, whose result "is for days", as anticipated in statements to Sul Informação José Oliveira, the president of this producer association.
The head of AlgarOrange said that this component of internationalization, namely the approximation to tourists visiting the Algarve, could be decisive for the sector, which this year entered a descending phase, with prices dropping substantially, after years of good results .
«Promoting an increase in exports of our citrus fruit is promoting an increase in the international visibility of the Algarve brand and companies in the region. Orange, in particular, is a premium local product associated with the Portuguese identity. If it was the Portuguese who introduced the orange to Europe and if the name Portugal is synonymous with orange in many countries (in Arabic, Romanian, Greek or Turkish, for example, the word Portugal designates the orange fruit), it makes perfect sense to leave it out. know us abroad for what is unique in the Algarve», believes João Fernandes.
Pedro Valadas Monteiro has no doubts that «taking advantage of synergies between tourism and citrus growing can only be a win-win strategy». In the view of the regional director of Agriculture and Fisheries, tourism “wins in terms of offer differentiation, as it is associated with regional production of recognized and certified quality”. Producers, on the other hand, take advantage “via the leverage induced by a brand and a sector with the weight and international notoriety of Algarve Tourism”.
Algarve citrus fruits were the first product in the region with Protected Geographical Indication, obtained in 1994. There are more than 15 hectares of citrus fruits planted in the Algarve, a region that produces 340 tonnes a year and holds the title of main citrus producer in the Algarve. parents.
«The Algarve represents 70% of the total national orange production and should be a tourist destination juicier of Portugal”, says João Fernandes.
Pedro Monteiro, on the other hand, hopes that «this initiative can be the kick-off for others that increasingly strengthen the interconnection between Tourism and agri-food and fisheries production in the Algarve, in favor of a more balanced economic and territorial development».
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