526
The day had already been a mess, with “cloud layers forming” in the sky as the hours passed, but the explosion came at seven in the evening. “It started with four drops of water and immediately turned into hail with an average diameter of more than one centimetre. It all happened in twenty minutes.” Rafael Caballero tries to convey with words the virulence of the storm that hit part of the region on Wednesday Get readyIt was a short time, but enough to discharge fifty liters per square meter and destroy all the land that this resident of San Vitero has in the town of San Cristóbal, five minutes away by car.
Rafael He points out that the storm blew almost everything away “in the form of stones” and points around him to show the consequences to the visitor. The land of this member of the Campo Aliste Selección Gourmet cooperative is full of tomato plants. On June 26 at six thirty, the stems rose half a meter from the ground; a few minutes later, they barely emerged from the ground. Almost a day later, and despite the blazing sun that returned after “the explosion,” there are still flooded areas in one of the epicentres of the disaster.
Rafael’s land is one of the eleven that make up this cooperative from Alistana for the sale of gourmet tomatoes. Here, the plants are left out in the open, without protection, and are cared for “with a very artisanal model.” The hail on Wednesday hit seven of these plots, those located in Ceadea, Rabanales, Grisuela and the municipality of San Vitero, including the town of San CristóbalInitial estimates indicate that 80,000 plants were destroyed, approximately 80% of the total.
Rafael alone has 24,000 of them, about 25% of the cooperative’s total, and in his case the hail has been devastating. «He has destroyed the plant. We are in the first flowering and not a single leaf is left, only the stem is visible. Now this looks like a field of asparagus“The producer sums up graphically, explaining that the stone has broken the growth guidelines: “Even if there is some regrowth, at most we will be able to remain at a harvest rate of 20%,” he estimates.
The Alistano cooperative member walks among his lands, sinks his boots in the mud, bends down to check the state of some plants and looks at the surroundings with calm sorrow. There is no anger, only resignation. «It is difficult to calculate the economic damage. There are many days of dedication here. Think that on a farm like this, between personal effort, the employees who are now working and so on, we had the equivalent of 500 days behind us,” says Rafael Caballero, who recalls in his reflection one of the key points of the issue. : Tomato generates contracts, even if they are temporary, in a region where everything is scarce.
The jobs in a depopulated area
“At our cooperativeeach one hires based on the size and needs of their farm,” stresses the producer, who gives his personal figures: “I, specifically, for the guiding, harvesting and pruning phase, I had calculated that there would be nine or ten people. Then, there is another classification and selection process in which I estimated fifteen more. For a rural environment, with such a low population density, 25 jobs are an opportunity,” argues Rafael.
At this point, it is appropriate to put into context the particular reality of Saint Christopher of Aliste, the place where the land from which the cooperative member speaks is located: “In winter, there will be between 25 and 30 stable inhabitants,” calculates the producer, who usually draws labor from the surrounding towns and who, for this campaign, was in talks to incorporate other people through social integration projects. The initiative that he shares with his ten colleagues has been running for three years, and it was just getting started.
“Now, obviously, hiring forecasts have to be modified,” he concedes. Raphaelwho hopes that this is “just a setback on the road”. “The thing is that for the small farmer who has joined as an experience for this year, a setback of this kind is discouraging. It is difficult to find people who dare, even for a test plantation of 4,000 or 5,000 plants, so I am more afraid of the discouragement that this experience may have induced than the direct economic impact itself, which is already very significant,” he explains.
Rafael himself is aware of the risks involved in his project, always dependent on the weather and, in particular, on unexpected circumstances such as Wednesday’s storm, but he claims “the opportunity” that tomatoes represent for the region despite everything. : “It is a quality product and the conditions of our soil, with an acidic pH, a clay base and high average temperatures during the day and cooler at night, give it exceptional characteristics,” emphasizes the cooperative member.
Not in vain, the “gourmet” tomato that grows in towns such as those already mentioned and also in Figueruela, Pobladura, Palazuelo, Sarracín, Riofrío or San Martín del Pedroso is sold in the large markets at an approximate price of seven euros per kilo. The fruits of Get ready They reach cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Malaga, but they have also crossed national borders to reach France. “We usually collect and sell between the end of August and the end of October,” explains Rafael, who admits that, in 2024, customers will have to understand that the volume will be much lower.
A plea for help
In view of this scenario, what the representative of the Alistana initiative is now launching is “an SOS at an institutional level.” “We are considering whether a direct line of aid or soft credit can be opened to try to overcome the difficulty,” says Rafael Caballero, who admits that some plantations did not have insurance. Among them, his own: “I didn’t have time because of a question of dates,” he says, before adding: “We still have to organize ourselves a bit to reach the management model that we want.”
Of course, in his case, the commitment to this life is evident. Born in San Cristóbal, Rafael worked for 35 years in Madrid in the world of consultancy. Four years ago he returned to Aliste, “excited” about the project and “with total and direct involvement”: “My company is still running there, but my place is here,” says the tomato producer, with his gaze raised and fixed on the Camino del Sierro, as this place is known. Moments later, he cleans his boots with water, takes a last look and leaves. At least it has stopped raining. From there, things can only get better.
