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Eugenio Cabezas
Axarquía
Friday, 17 January 2025, 17:01
The almond tree is a crop in decline in the Axarquía area of Malaga province due to the progressive loss of profitability, as is also the case with the Muscat of Alexandria grape. However, an innovative European project could change this downward trend.
President of the Mancomunidad association of town halls in the Axarquía, Jorge Martín; the president of Impulsa Axarquía and ACET, Cynthia Díaz, and Paolo Pepe, director of Nav (Noto Almond Valley) have presented an initiative launched between the Axarquía and Noto in the province of Syracuse (Sicily).
“This is a pioneering project related to the extraction of almond milk, a product that is currently on the rise due to its flavour and health benefits. That is why, when Impulsa Axarquía asked us to get involved in it, we did not hesitate to accept this innovative and sustainable proposal for our agriculture,” explained Martín in a statement.
“Agriculture, along with tourism, is the most thriving sector in this area. There are many families who make a living from the countryside, working in cooperatives and agricultural companies. Its economic power is enormous and also the image we have in Europe for the quality of our products, especially for the subtropicals. Therefore, we are very much in agreement in adding other alternatives that can be profitable in our area that require fewer water resources and that are also typical of our Mediterranean climate,” Martín said.
Paolo Pepe explained that “the aim is to produce milk from hard-shelled almonds grown in the Noto Valley, on the Italian island of Sicily, through the use of an automated machine, the prototype of which has already been created and patented a system that allows almond milk to be extracted from the fruit itself”. The prototype has been designed at the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan). “There is no similar machine whose production process respects the product while being completely natural,” he added.
The project, financed with European funds, has an execution period of 22 to 28 months. “We chose the Axarquía because it is the area that most closely resembles the meteorological, territorial, social and economic characteristics of the area of Sicily where the project is focused. We are also aware of the importance of its tourist and commercial network,” Pepe explained.
He added that it would be an opportunity for both areas “to create a bilateral cooperation network around this unique product, to establish a common strategy to work together on production and marketing in order to be competitive, taking California as a reference point, although it is a different variety”.
At the beginning of February a delegation from the Axarquía will travel to Noto to meet with the heads of the Coldieretti agricultural association in Syracuse and with public officials from the province. In addition to representatives of the Mancomunidad and the association of entrepreneurs and traders of Torre del Mar (ACET), members of the Institute of Subtropical and Mediterranean Horticulture La Mayora, which has expressed interest in the Nav Noto 4.0 project, will also attend as observers. The visit will be paid for by the promoters of this European-funded project.
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