Invited by ECPA (European Crop Protection Association), a delegation of journalists from Slovenia, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Romania visited last October 15 Almeria, to see first hand Almeria productive system and thus show European consumers, safety and quality of food that reaches their table every day.
The visit is part of the waste management project carried out by ECPA and where AEPLA involved, and aims to minimize the presence of traces of pesticides in food, and increase consumer confidence in food safety.
This project is carried out together with the Experimental Station of Cajamar ‘The Palmerillas’, located in the heart of the Spanish greenhouse production, Almería. It includes a training of trainers, and thus a better understanding of the steps for better waste management then be shared with other countries.
ECPA believes that this project can help advance waste management in fresh foods of the Mediterranean area, and thereby also expects consumers to transfer a message of tranquility to know that the safety of the food coming into your table is guaranteed. In this sense, plant industry in Europe is committed to helping strengthen education, training and advice, promoting good plant protection practice as the best guarantee of food security and agricultural sustainability.
Almería choice was motivated by the success of their management of horticultural production, significantly reducing cases where LMR’s set are exceeded, an example for other areas of production.
The conference, which began at the Experimental Station of the Palmerillas, where they were greeted by Maria Cruz Escudero, Director of the station and in which visited different facilities where they could meet labor technicians same the different projects that are developing. The next stops were the seedbed Tecnobioplant, where they were greeted by Fernando de la Torre. This seed has an irrigation system and air conditioning of last generation, and where graft camera systems, control systems and monitoring of health status and seedling vigor, allowing showed that multitúnel facilities greenhouses, with butterfly double windows and side ventilation, maximize returns on crops. Following the visit continued in Alhondiga La Union where Jesus Barranco and technicians showed the same as the greenhouse production is managed, and where an example of innovation applied leading company in the production and marketing agri Almería showed.
The visit ended in Laborario Lab, where they made an interesting tour of its facilities with Javier Arrebola and Paco Egea, where in addition to visiting the facilities, was addressed how to perform the analysis for proper waste control. They participated in an interesting discussion with invited journalists, who joined Jean Charles Bocquet and Carlos Palomar, Directors General of ECPA and AEPLA, by the phytosanitary industry, Jose Antonio Aliaga of the Andalusian and Roberto García Torrente the Cajamar Foundation.
Source: AEPLA
