The roads that lead into the fields of Villanueva de la Jara (Cuenca) are full of slopes and limestone: a characteristic photo of the Manchuela of Cuenca, where the cultivation of vines and cereals has always dominated. Until now. Ángel Minaya, a businessman and farmer in the area, is planting pistachio trees that can bear fruit in three and a half years, representing a revolution for a crop that usually takes almost a decade to start producing results.
The technique is not new; several companies in the United States have been using it for many years with good results. Now Minaya, founder of Agróptimum, a company founded in 2015 responsible for the sale of the plants of these dried fruits and the management of the new crops, wants to follow this success in this municipality in Castile-La Mancha. Agricultural betting has become a profitable business. Last year, the company sold 500,000 systems and achieved sales of 15 million euros with an operating result (Ebitda) of 2.7 million euros. The agricultural business directly employs 150 people from the region.
Minaya isn’t the only one who sees opportunity in this crazy woman; Dominated by the United States, Turkey and Iran, the crop is gaining importance in Spain thanks to its exceptional performance and agronomic profitability compared to other alternatives such as cereals, almond trees, olive trees or vineyards. In 2010, there were barely 1,000 hectares in the entire country, but today there are more than 66,000 hectares, according to the area and yield survey prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture.
While traveling through California – where there are fields that can produce up to 6,000 kilograms per planted hectare, twice as much as in Spain – Minaya learned that to improve crop yields he had to leave behind the Cornicabra strain that had been used in the past Spain is refining the pistachio bud and switching to UCB-1, a variety that is more resistant to climatic adversities and is early in production. “We want to make the Ferrari out of pistachio plants,” he says in one of the hot nurseries where the new bushes grow before they are taken to the field.
“The UCB-1 managed to withstand Storm Filomena and the last extreme drought we had,” explains the young man from La Mancha. He adds: “The problem with the Cornicabra is that, apart from the fact that it takes 8 to 10 years to develop, it does not adapt to areas with high soil moisture because the fungi attack it very directly.”
Now investment funds, Agróptimum’s main customers, see in pistachios the opportunity they saw years ago in almond and olive trees. This includes the Atitlan Group, for which Agróptimum manages almost 2,000 hectares of cultivated land in Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Castile-La Mancha. This municipality alone accounts for 81% of the cultivated area (53,925 hectares), according to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Technology guides the process
Almost the entire process is supported by some kind of technological component, which Javier Gallego, the company’s director of sustainability and innovation, considers essential to “optimize resources and reduce costs”. The development of the small trunks within the nurseries is monitored by dendrometers and humidity sensors that record the growth of the trees. Everything that determines whether a plant needs more fertilizer or higher humidity is collected in a cloud data center. “It’s like feeding them one at a time,” explains Minaya: “You avoid a lot of problems that would otherwise arise when the tree is three or four years old.” This way, he adds, they ensure that all plants are homogeneous – or as he says, “sisters” – and that production per tree is almost identical.
“Our trees also develop a root system that allows them to be transplanted twelve months a year,” adds Minaya, holding an already developed trunk in her hand. “This one is already ten months old. “He’s ready to go on the field.”
A pistachio plant grafted onto a UCB-1 strain at ten months of age. Photo provided
Pistachio is the crop that has increased the area cultivated the most in Spain. The 2021 and 2022 campaign was 16,725 tonnes, while the average for the last five years was 9,763. Its consumption is also increasing. According to Agróptimum, global sales increased by 30% last year alone. Its gastronomic versatility and its attractive market price have made the pistachio the “new green gold”, as the Castilian-Manchego bank Globalcaja even stated. Minaya estimates his plants can produce up to 6,000 kilos per hectare each year. And each ton (1,000 kilos) collected from irrigated land is worth around 9,000 euros, according to the company.
“We Spaniards were very lacking in visionaries. We started pulling out the male trees because they weren’t producing anything. What we didn’t know is that they are essential because they produce the pollen that the females need to germinate,” says Minaya as she tours Casa de Olmo, the room she dedicates to the research and development of the UCB-1 species have dedicated.
Gallego, the director of sustainability, explains that the value of pistachios lies in the fact that they do not have frost problems, unlike olive and almond trees. The same thing happens in heat: olives die in high temperatures and pistachios, which come from a desert climate, persist, even though all three require the same amount of water. In this way, this tree, which arrived on the peninsula in the hands of the Romans, became extinct there and returned in 1986 thanks to the ambition of the agronomist José Francisco Couceiro, once again populates the fields in the center of the country.
This year the group expects sales of 20 million euros and a profit of almost 4 million (Ebitda). Now it is expanding the greenhouses to 75,000 square meters and bringing one million plants to market by the end of 2023. The geography speaks for this. In Europe, only Spain, Italy and Greece are able to produce pistachios due to the dry climate inland.
Currently only 10% of plantations in Spain are at full capacity. Experts point out that the market will reach its maximum potential in the next five years. Minaya doesn’t have to wait that long. If nothing stands in the way, the first harvest will take place next September. The young entrepreneur is initially taking care of the care and monitoring of the freshly transplanted pistachio trees and shoots. “Sometimes the pollen does not reach these trees well, that is why we also use drones,” explains the Castilian-La Mancha businessman, who believes that agriculture and technology cannot go separate ways.
Where everyone sees reddish earth, limestone cliffs and the dry horizon of Castile-La Mancha, Minaya, at 25, saw the future.
Agroptimum facilities, covering almost 70,000 square meters, in Villanueva de la Jara (Cuenca)
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