Once the entire potato crop has been harvested in the Huesca municipality of Chía and its processing for commercialization is practically completed, the Chía Potato Producers Association (APPC) qualify the campaign as “normal” , perhaps with calibers somewhat smaller than in previous campaigns.
Lanau emphasizes that this fair is always “a very important day for our people , a very special festive day in which many people come to Chía and get to know the town and its surroundings.” For this reason, the impossibility of celebrating it these last two years has caused a “remarkable” sadness, because the contest is also “a resonance box” of the work of the tuber producers and of the many initiatives “of all kinds” that the inhabitants of this beautiful corner of the Pyrenees.
This season has not been affected by the lack of rainfall in the plain -in the Pyrenean mountains, spring and summer have been relatively humid and cool, optimal circumstances for the product-, but the excessive rains in May at the beginning The sowing, with two large storms of more than 100 liters per square meter, left the soil caked, damaging the subsequent growth process of the tuber.
Five producers make up the APPC, which has the invaluable support of the Socio-Labor Center ‘El Remós’ in the tasks of marketing and distribution of potato production. They work an area of about six hectares of land in the upper part of the town, whose characteristics are especially suitable for the cultivation of potatoes, and which are rotated every three years to let “rest” some fields that are worked recovering traditional techniques and animal traction for a good part of the processes. The average production this year has been between six and seven tons per hectare; about 40 tons that have a strong demand in the area and also in Huesca and Zaragoza.
APPC
It is a “hard and white” potato, with a characteristic flavor, excellent to eat and, according to Arturo Lanau, president of the association of local producers of this tuber, “of dry land, which grows with the rains that fall from the sky during the summer, healthy, ecological and committed to the environment and the social burden that comes with having gotten the involvement of ‘El Remós’ in this project “.
The commitment to revitalize the planting of these potatoes in the area, which since 2014 have been certified as ‘organic farming’, has also been revealed as an excellent tool for establishing population in the territory and as an interesting showcase for tourism promotion from Chía and the rest of the Benasque Valley .
The certification Chia potato as ‘organic farming’ recognizes the strict work rules set by the APPC and its commitment to maintaining the use of traditional methods to preserve the quality of the product . Lanau points out that this quality of the Chía potato is determined both by the height of the town and its cultivated lands – above 1,200 meters above sea level – and the type of soil, as well as by a traditional working system of fields where chemical fertilizers or phytosanitary products are not used.
Potato Fair
In 2021, the still existing social and health situation advised the organizers not to convene for the second consecutive year the successful Chía Potato Fair, which is traditionally held on the dates of the All Saints Bridge.
They had received numerous requests for this lively and massive call to return this year as a symbol of the recovery of an increasingly normality and of an invaluable showcase of an excellent quality product that has managed to gain a place in the always demanding food market , but, as Arturo Lanau acknowledges, although they were talking to recover the fair this year, “there were many inconveniences of all kinds and in the end we agreed that everything will be much better from now on and we will be able to celebrate it without problems next year “.
