The harvest of the Piquillo de Lodosa pepper, a real treasure of the Navarrese orchard, has started with an increase in the hectares of cultivated area.
In this campaign, they recorded the Regulatory Council for this Designation of Origin192 hectares divided into 260 plots (178 hectares last year).
Despite this, the canning outlook is similar to last season, as the peppers show less flesh this year. Also, the pepper will be finer when it comes to eating it, which in turn will mean a higher production cost.
Maturation of the product until the end of October
The president of this denomination of origin, Jesús Aguirre, is convinced that in the coming weeks “there will be no early frosts” and that the pepper will ripen gradually until the end of October.
“Everything indicates that it will be a complicated campaign due to the sharp increase in costs, mainly energy costs,” said Aguirre. Remember that this product is flame-roasted and dry-peeled, “which considerably increases the need for labour”.
The piquillo peppers are roasted in special ovens to maintain the quality of the product. EFE/Jesus Diges
For this piquillo campaign, one of the products protected under the Navarre quality mark gourmet king76 farmers applied for registration, three less than in 2021. For its part, the number of processing companies has not changed and remains at 13.
Last year, the inspection and certification staff of INTIA carried out a total of 36 inspections during the manufacturing process of this pepper. To these are added the 186 physico-chemical analyzes of preserves which are carried out in the ordinary way to guarantee the quality of this product from Navarre.
On the other hand, according to data provided by the Designation of Origin Lodosa Piquillo Pepper, of the almost 2.5 tons of product harvested, just over 2 tons were part of the processing process of registered canning companies. Among the seven municipalities with protected crops, Mendavia was the locality with the highest number of areas (78.51 hectares), while Lerín had the highest number of plots (68 plantations).
The Technical Certification Unit of the public company INTIA is in charge of supervising all the processes of cultivation, reception of the fruit, elaboration, packaging and certification of the final product.
This technical unit is authorized by the competent administrations to act as a control body, in accordance with the provisions of the respective European regulations on designations of origin and geographical indications of agricultural and food products, spirits and wine products.
Web editor: Javier Rodrigo