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article_detail
Date Published: 24/11/2020
ARCHIVED - Cultivation of aromatic plants in North-west Murcia slowly expanding
In 2019 the Murcia Region produced 44 tons of essential oils extracted from aromatic plants
The growth of aromatic plants from which essential oils are extracted has been a part of the agricultural sector for many years, particularly in the north-west of the Murcia region, outlying dry areas of Lorca and inland areas where there is a lack of irrigation water, but the soil and hot conditions permit the growth of plants such as lavender, thyme, rosemary and sage. From all of these, essential oils used in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries can be extracted.
Stills used for the preparation of essential oils can be seen in some of the ethnographic museums around the region, although the process today is much more industrialised than was the case in the region 100 years ago.
Walkers in the north-west of the region will sometimes have chanced upon fields of lavender, tucked away between the pine forests of the north-west in Moratalla or Cehegín, and the scent of wet rosemary on a misty morning amongst the hillsides surrounding Caravaca is very noticeable.
Interest in finding new crops to cope with the specific conditions being created by climate change is once again starting to focus attention on the potential for growing aromatic plants in the region, and the regional government has created several mechanisms to assist growers in these drier inland areas of the region.
Currently, the cultivated area for the extraction of essential oils is around 1,500 hectares, which are concentrated, above all, in the aforementioned areas of the interior of the Region. The sector produced more than 44 tons of essential oils last year, with the most abundant crops being red thyme, Spanish sage, lavender and lavandin. Rosemary, marjoram and oregano are also grown, but to a lesser extent.
All of the cultivation is organic, and supporting this sector is being viewed also as a means of helping to encourage agricultural activity in areas without irrigation, and as a tool to help fight the depopulation of dry cultivation rural areas, in line with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, which supports agriculture that is more respectful of the natural environment.
The regional Ministry of Agriculture has recently created a new working group for aromatic plants, to coordinate the actions aimed at giving the sector increased support, and the Murcian Institute of Agricultural and Food Research (Imida) is working to help producers identify the crops which can give maximum yield and supporting them with research projects in order to maximise the resources available to them.
In addition, the producers working in the northern outlying districts of Lorca are trying to obtain the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) for red thyme.
A by-product of the cultivation of aromatics is of course, honey, and the honey of the north-west of the region can be purchased from most health food shops in the region, as well as from craft fairs, the artisan centres of the region and some markets.
The flavours vary considerably between honey coming from bees visiting rosemary flowers (romero), to lavender and from the fruit tree blossom of the stone fruit crops in areas such as Cieza. It’s slightly more expensive than imported Chinese honey, but there’s no comparison between the two products; goes down really well on bread from a wood-fired oven baked in the north-west, with lashings of butter and a cuppa in front of the fire on an autumn afternoon!
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