The Formentera Council's president and rural affairs councillor met with two members of the Cooperativa del Camp, director Carlos Marí and chairman Jaume Escandell, along with Eivissa and Formentera's Ibanat delegate, Carolina Rodríguez, for a noon visit of the co-op's farming operations —a first— at Can Marroig.
CiF president Jaume Ferrer described Can Marroig as an “iconic local site long associated with agrarian activity”. Ferrer said agricultural work on the Can Marroig plots was abandoned “with the arrival of tourism” and that reviving traditional activity there has been “a goal of the Council's ever since the Govern balear purchased the property”.
Testing the waters
This week the “Farmers' Co-op” has sown the first two hectares' worth of native cereals, explained the Cooperativa's director, with plans to dedicate some of the harvest to making fodder. The rest will be given to islanders who say they need it. Marí indicated a pilot programme was in the works to plant aromatic herbs there.
For his part, rural affairs councillor Bartomeu Escandell spoke about the administration's commitment in recent years to reclaiming the countryside. Escandell pointed out that since its reactivation in 2015, the island's agrarian co-operative has received help in its efforts. Joint action initiatives have totalled €400,000, plus an industrial space was revamped to house the co-op and they have received roughly one million euros in machinery. The goal being, he said, “to continue promoting primary activity on the island”.
The Council, Govern balear and Ibanat, which owns the land, signed a deal in 2016 that made it possible to revive agrarian activity at Can Marroig.