• Català
  • Castellano
  • English

Formentera unveils depot for farmers' co-operative

cooperativa 2Formentera's agrarian co-operative, Cooperativa del Camp, belatedly celebrated the July opening of the group's warehouse space this Saturday with considerable fanfare. The €590,000 construction project, coordinated by the Formentera Council, was financed in part by the Leader programme (23%) and in part by the Council (67%).

Among the event's 200 plus attendees were Cooperativa chairman Jaume Escandell and Formentera Council president Jaume Ferrer, both of whom addressed the crowd. Another of the evening's guests, Pep de n'Andreu, in a traditional glosa, proclaimed: “Our task with the new co-operative is to continue cultivating the land, keeping it decent”.

The co-operative's managing director, Carles Marí, declared the night a success in terms of turnout and thanked “all those whose selfless collaboration had made it possible, particularly the gastronomical cooking staff and Formentera's own balladors,” referring to members of the the island's dance troupes.

Two-hundred twenty affiliated members
When the local farmers' co-op was reactivated in 2010, there were 52 names on the group's membership rolls. Today, the number is 220. The Co-op works in tandem with the Council on Fons de Terres, an initiative (roughly translated as “Farmland Reserve”) that involves stewardship of untilled local fields. With €90,000 in yearly funding from the administration, the programme aims to beautify rural landscapes. To date 70 local landowners have participated in Fons de Terres by turning over care of 200 hectares of farmland to the Cooperativa.