Tropical fruit plans for Axarquia farms

GLOBAL warming is turning the Axarquia into the tropical orchard of Europe.

That means that farmers in the region could soon be growing high value tropical fruits such as lychees and longans to export all round the world, claim scientists.

La Mayora institute for investigating tropical fruit has been growing different varieties of the fruit trees at its Algarrobo experimental plantation. Now they have come up with the perfect varieties for local farmers to grow.

The professor in charge of the study, Iñaki Hormaza, explained that in the past farmers experimenting with lychees had grown the wrong variety for the area. But he explained that longans, a South Asian fruit, might be the perfect tree to plant as they bear a large, all year round crop.

Plus they are high value and much sought after in Vietnam. In the USA they fetch between five and seven euros a kilo.