Chirimoya farmers in the valley are asking for help to tackle a wave of crop thefts. They are, as can be imagined, sick and tired of working all year to produce a crop only for it to be stolen off the trees before it is even ripe. Furthermore, they are convinced that the majority of the stolen fruit ends up being sold at the roadside along the N-340 and N-323.
Antonio Sánchez González, who is the Chairman of the Regulating Board of the D.O. Chirimoya de la Costa Tropical, says that the fruit collection campaign has just begun and hopes to harvest between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes of this fruit. It is worth remembering that the Costa del Sol and Costa Tropical are the only areas in Europe that produce chirimoyas and are the largest producers of this fruit in the world.
Getting back to the theft off fruit off trees, it is normal for farmers not to bother pollinating the branches of trees that border roads, precisely because they are the trees that are targeted – what’s the point of toiling away to produce fruit on those trees if they are going to get stolen anyway.