Towards the end of the nineteenth century, romantic travellers and European aristocrats (an Austrian one in particular) discovered the romantic charms of Mallorca. An island hitherto unremarkable in the general scheme of Mediterranean things began to acquire a reputation. Those romantic travellers would arrive by boat, soak in the sight of the Cathedral, appreciate the light and the climate, and be taken by stage coach to mountain retreats, not least those of the Archduke Louis Salvador.
In the mountains those travellers could enjoy glorious vistas. Those who were friendly with the Archduke could visit Son Marroig, the stately pile perched on a cliff top overlooking the Tramuntana coastline. From the lookout, designed to the Archduke's instruction, they, as he did, could contemplate the rock with the hole in it - Sa Foradada - and the sheet of blue which at the horizon competed with a vast canvas of more blue (assuming the weather was ideal, that is).
The Archduke, despite his aristocratic upbringing, understood much of this island. In fact he would have understood more about it than anyone else. The Archduke, in some respects, invented Mallorca and indeed the Balearics. And among the subjects that the encyclopaedic Archduke turned his research attention to was the island's agriculture. He could hardly have avoided it. Agriculture was about all there was.
Mallorca was far from unique in this regard. Agriculture was still a dominant if not the dominant sector for parts of Europe, in particular those which the Industrial Revolution had ignored. The steam train was to arrive only a few years after the Archduke had in the late 1860s. The Industrial Revolution slowly made itself felt.
The Archduke knew about the steam trains, just as he knew about agriculture. His detail was such that he could note the price and output of produce. His inventories were as assiduously compiled as were those by governmental emissaries who were occasionally dispatched to this remote island in an attempt to understand why it was part of Spain.
But the Archduke was interested in more than just monetary values and the weight of crops. He witnessed the agricultural condition and the appalling condition of the farming labourers. There was grinding poverty, wholly inadequate wages, intolerable hours. And there was also pest. When phylloxera struck the vines in 1891 it was just another blow for agriculture. Emigration and the promise of greater wealth and better standards of living deprived the island of much of its agricultural workforce.
Move forward to the late 1950s and Mallorca and Spain were economic basket cases. Mallorca was actually rather better off than many parts of the country, and this owed much to its banking sector. In the fields the lot of the agricultural worker was still far from wonderful. Agriculture had enjoyed but also endured the Franco regime. Enjoyed it because of the stability of autarky that guaranteed the employment required for economic self-sufficiency and the supplies from the cooperatives. Endured it because of a lack of investment and innovation. Self-sufficiency placed a premium on staple crops above more profitable ones. Autarky had been economic insanity. Spain was on its knees before the Americans intervened, Opus Dei technocrats guided the regime towards a different economic model, and tourism (and foreign exchange) were discovered.
On 23 September there is to be a demonstration against the "massification" of tourism. The different groups which have lent their support to this demo have produced a "manifesto". This refers, among other things, to the days of the romantic traveller and the European aristocrats. It implies the existence of an idyll, which was far from the case, especially for the agricultural working class. There is another reference - to the "imposition" of tourism by the Franco regime and by local "caciques", a term used here in broad terms to mean businesses, such as banks.
The image that the Assemblea 23-S, the umbrella title for the demo's organisers, is conjuring up is one of its own false romanticism. It appears to hanker after a past before tourism was imposed on a "predominantly agrarian economy". If so, then its vision is as insane as autarky had been.
It ignores utterly the fact that a Mallorcan development of the "industry of the foreigners", which was how tourism was described at the turn of the twentieth century, owed a great deal to the insufficiency of agriculture. It ignores a further fact that agricultural workers were offered an alternative source of employment by the boom in tourism in the '60s. Yes, big mistakes were made through the environmental destructiveness of so-called Balearisation, but new employment was created and a new society began to emerge - one that was more cosmopolitan, more modern.
Agricultural work was every bit as precarious as work in the tourism sector. It still is. Wages are low, seasonality is a factor, the weather is another. Yet the Assemblea, characterised as much as anything by parochialism, would seem to be willing an imposition of this old economy. Romantic?
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
This Wounded Land
There is an environmentalist group in Mallorca called Terraferida. The name means wounded land, and the group takes aim at what is sees as wounds inflicted on Mallorca's land. For Terraferida, human intervention is not benign. It responds to population growth, tourism, economic development and speculation. It serves itself at the expense of land, wounding it in the process.
Underpinning the beliefs of groups such as Terraferida is an unstated idyll, a hankering for a time before intervention altered the land. Yet human intervention goes to the heart of the supposedly unwounded land. It goes back to times many centuries ago, which have only recently been honoured by Unesco. The landscaping of the Tramuntana mountains was the product of ingenious intervention which created dry-stone walls, terraces and passages that survive to this day. The mountains are placed on a pedestal for tourism of an alternative variety - cultural, historical, natural - yet the mountains and this alternative tourism owe a great deal if not everything to human intervention. The motivations for intervention were quite different - they essentially boiled down to survival - but it was necessary to shape the land way back when, just as it is nowadays.
The key difference is the aggressive nature of this intervention. And interwoven with this is a connection with the land that can too easily be overlooked or not be appreciated. The connection can also be overstated, but somewhere in the middle there exists a soul in Mallorca that beats because of its land.
Contemporary political and social discourse is littered with references to land, to landscape, to scenery, to natural patrimony. This might be taken to be a consequence of the reassertion of the values of the land that were severely undermined by the process of "Balearisation" which changed coastal Mallorca irretrievably. Although Terraferida and others will point to more current-day evidence of aggressive intervention, it is the collective memory of Balearisation which informs much of this discourse. It hasn't been forgotten, and it hasn't been forgiven.
But if one goes back to times pre-Balearisation, the discourse was much the same. The early twentieth century founders of Mallorca's tourism spoke of little else than land and landscape. They were to be grateful to the publicists - the landscape artists, the writers who introduced this idyll in the Mediterranean to a gradually global audience.
It was landscape and patrimony, both natural and manmade (such as with the Cathedral), that the early movers of Mallorca's tourism promoted. And they did so, at least in part, as a response to crisis. It was one that affected the land - phylloxera.
The damage that was caused to the vineyards of Mallorca served only to reinforce the vulnerability of the island, one surviving mainly on a monoculture economy of agriculture. Tourism, predicated on land, was to provide a solution. Nowadays, the land is looked to as a means of providing a new solution to a different monoculture - that of tourism and principally a tourism of the coasts.
There has been much discussion about how tourist tax revenue is to be spent. Why, it has been asked, should revenue go to agrarian projects. One reason why is in order to recover, maintain or improve the landscape and the natural patrimony. It is too easy perhaps to consider landscape as being the Tramuntana and nothing else, purely because so much is said about the mountains. But this landscape - obviously enough - is everywhere, and it is one that provides, among other things, almond blossom at this time of the year.
The land has been wounded again. Drought and floods have created the wounds, and the land finds itself confronted by another enemy - xylella - which can deepen the wounds further. These are not self-inflicted wounds, like Balearisation was, these are natural and have an impact on the natural patrimony.
But there have been "plagues" before, such as phylloxera. The land recovers, and if human intervention can be shown to be at its most benign by hastening recovery or indeed preventing its need by stopping the destruction of almonds, olives and others, then so much the better. We wish them the very best. They are working with the soul of Mallorca - the land.
Underpinning the beliefs of groups such as Terraferida is an unstated idyll, a hankering for a time before intervention altered the land. Yet human intervention goes to the heart of the supposedly unwounded land. It goes back to times many centuries ago, which have only recently been honoured by Unesco. The landscaping of the Tramuntana mountains was the product of ingenious intervention which created dry-stone walls, terraces and passages that survive to this day. The mountains are placed on a pedestal for tourism of an alternative variety - cultural, historical, natural - yet the mountains and this alternative tourism owe a great deal if not everything to human intervention. The motivations for intervention were quite different - they essentially boiled down to survival - but it was necessary to shape the land way back when, just as it is nowadays.
The key difference is the aggressive nature of this intervention. And interwoven with this is a connection with the land that can too easily be overlooked or not be appreciated. The connection can also be overstated, but somewhere in the middle there exists a soul in Mallorca that beats because of its land.
Contemporary political and social discourse is littered with references to land, to landscape, to scenery, to natural patrimony. This might be taken to be a consequence of the reassertion of the values of the land that were severely undermined by the process of "Balearisation" which changed coastal Mallorca irretrievably. Although Terraferida and others will point to more current-day evidence of aggressive intervention, it is the collective memory of Balearisation which informs much of this discourse. It hasn't been forgotten, and it hasn't been forgiven.
But if one goes back to times pre-Balearisation, the discourse was much the same. The early twentieth century founders of Mallorca's tourism spoke of little else than land and landscape. They were to be grateful to the publicists - the landscape artists, the writers who introduced this idyll in the Mediterranean to a gradually global audience.
It was landscape and patrimony, both natural and manmade (such as with the Cathedral), that the early movers of Mallorca's tourism promoted. And they did so, at least in part, as a response to crisis. It was one that affected the land - phylloxera.
The damage that was caused to the vineyards of Mallorca served only to reinforce the vulnerability of the island, one surviving mainly on a monoculture economy of agriculture. Tourism, predicated on land, was to provide a solution. Nowadays, the land is looked to as a means of providing a new solution to a different monoculture - that of tourism and principally a tourism of the coasts.
There has been much discussion about how tourist tax revenue is to be spent. Why, it has been asked, should revenue go to agrarian projects. One reason why is in order to recover, maintain or improve the landscape and the natural patrimony. It is too easy perhaps to consider landscape as being the Tramuntana and nothing else, purely because so much is said about the mountains. But this landscape - obviously enough - is everywhere, and it is one that provides, among other things, almond blossom at this time of the year.
The land has been wounded again. Drought and floods have created the wounds, and the land finds itself confronted by another enemy - xylella - which can deepen the wounds further. These are not self-inflicted wounds, like Balearisation was, these are natural and have an impact on the natural patrimony.
But there have been "plagues" before, such as phylloxera. The land recovers, and if human intervention can be shown to be at its most benign by hastening recovery or indeed preventing its need by stopping the destruction of almonds, olives and others, then so much the better. We wish them the very best. They are working with the soul of Mallorca - the land.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
What If There Hadn't Been Tourism?
Tourismphobia appears to be a mainly Spanish concept. Indeed it seems to be almost exclusively Spanish. Put tourismphobia into Google and you don't get very far, and where you do get leads you mostly to Spain, including a scholar in Girona who's been researching the phobia. Put "turismofobia" into Google, and there's a different result: five pages convinced me that this is very much a Spanish thing.
Which isn't to say that there isn't fear or dislike of tourism elsewhere, just that Spain (certain parts anyway) is where there is an actual phobia. Despite the phobia appearing to be confined to the likes of Barcelona (and Mallorca), its existence is sufficient for the national tourism minister to refer to it. Álvaro Nadal told an audience in Madrid that there needs to be an end to talk of tourismphobia. Tourism is, after all, good for you and especially for the economy. The trouble is trying to convince everyone of the fact.
The apparent existence of this phobia prompted me to seek out evidence of its historical antecedents in Mallorca. What of phobia at the time of the great boom of the 1960s? The research will take a great deal more time than a cursory examination of Google. I am aware that there was a phobia, which then meant what it should mean - a fear rather than dislike or hatred - but documentary evidence will be thin on the ground. In the 1960s, you didn't go around announcing great protests while Fraga and Franco were overseeing things.
The phobia of the sixties for the most part wasn't a phobia. It was more a case of being jocular in a disparaging way. Dubbing someone a "turista" was used to mock. The presence of actual fear was a different thing. It's not as if everyone was blind to what was happening: the destruction of coastal environments; the assault on culture; the quasi-colonialism which tourism represented. Expressing such a fear, however, was not likely to do you any great favours.
It was during the dying years of the regime and afterwards that voices emerged who spoke of the fear. One to have done so was (and is) Miquel López Crespí, the Sa Pobla-based author. Among his output are reflections of the way in which what was once Sa Pobla's beach on the bay of Alcudia was transformed into Playa de Muro. In the process all the memories of simple August nights in the 1950s became just that - memories.
While I was hunting for some evidence, I stumbled across an article from 1984 by Climent Picornell, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. It is germane in the sense that tourismphobia, at its most extreme, would see tourism consigned to the bin of economic activity: a point that Nadal was making, if not in quite these words. The article wasn't written from the point of view of the fear but from a consideration of what there would have been, had there not been tourism.
Hypothetical the situation may have been in 1984 and still is today, but a fear hasn't altered over the intervening 33 years. Picornell referred to the "monospecialisation" of the economy - the reliance on one sector of activity. This is something which is widely spoken about nowadays, and within the debate there are those, such as GOB, who advance the case for greater emphasis on agriculture - a reclaiming of the land that was lost during the boom. Picornell wasn't so sure about that. He suggested that an historical emigration would have continued. People would have sought out prospects in the Caribbean and South America.
His focus wasn't agriculture, however. It was industry, and he looked at the establishment and then growth of industrial estates, such as Son Castelló and Can Valero. There were reasons why Asima, the organisation behind these estates, undertook their development. One day, tourism would come to an end, spelling economic catastrophe. There could be no waiting around for this to happen. An alternative was required.
While the estates might have presupposed the establishment of a thriving, indigenous artisanal industry, the outcome was to prove to be rather different. Even in 1984, Picornell was able to reflect on the way in which the estates had come to serve tourism or to be littered with cash and carrys. Tourism, and all that it bred, including greater consumerism, was all-consuming, and there was of course no catastrophe.
Industry which predated tourism, such as textiles and chemicals, did largely disappear. But had it been necessary for industry, rather than tourism, to dominate, what might the consequences have been? Environmentally, they could have been more savage than anything tourism has served up. And who could possibly say that its competitiveness would have come close to that of tourism? Having a phobia is one thing, eliminating it and replacing it with something else is quite another.
Which isn't to say that there isn't fear or dislike of tourism elsewhere, just that Spain (certain parts anyway) is where there is an actual phobia. Despite the phobia appearing to be confined to the likes of Barcelona (and Mallorca), its existence is sufficient for the national tourism minister to refer to it. Álvaro Nadal told an audience in Madrid that there needs to be an end to talk of tourismphobia. Tourism is, after all, good for you and especially for the economy. The trouble is trying to convince everyone of the fact.
The apparent existence of this phobia prompted me to seek out evidence of its historical antecedents in Mallorca. What of phobia at the time of the great boom of the 1960s? The research will take a great deal more time than a cursory examination of Google. I am aware that there was a phobia, which then meant what it should mean - a fear rather than dislike or hatred - but documentary evidence will be thin on the ground. In the 1960s, you didn't go around announcing great protests while Fraga and Franco were overseeing things.
The phobia of the sixties for the most part wasn't a phobia. It was more a case of being jocular in a disparaging way. Dubbing someone a "turista" was used to mock. The presence of actual fear was a different thing. It's not as if everyone was blind to what was happening: the destruction of coastal environments; the assault on culture; the quasi-colonialism which tourism represented. Expressing such a fear, however, was not likely to do you any great favours.
It was during the dying years of the regime and afterwards that voices emerged who spoke of the fear. One to have done so was (and is) Miquel López Crespí, the Sa Pobla-based author. Among his output are reflections of the way in which what was once Sa Pobla's beach on the bay of Alcudia was transformed into Playa de Muro. In the process all the memories of simple August nights in the 1950s became just that - memories.
While I was hunting for some evidence, I stumbled across an article from 1984 by Climent Picornell, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. It is germane in the sense that tourismphobia, at its most extreme, would see tourism consigned to the bin of economic activity: a point that Nadal was making, if not in quite these words. The article wasn't written from the point of view of the fear but from a consideration of what there would have been, had there not been tourism.
Hypothetical the situation may have been in 1984 and still is today, but a fear hasn't altered over the intervening 33 years. Picornell referred to the "monospecialisation" of the economy - the reliance on one sector of activity. This is something which is widely spoken about nowadays, and within the debate there are those, such as GOB, who advance the case for greater emphasis on agriculture - a reclaiming of the land that was lost during the boom. Picornell wasn't so sure about that. He suggested that an historical emigration would have continued. People would have sought out prospects in the Caribbean and South America.
His focus wasn't agriculture, however. It was industry, and he looked at the establishment and then growth of industrial estates, such as Son Castelló and Can Valero. There were reasons why Asima, the organisation behind these estates, undertook their development. One day, tourism would come to an end, spelling economic catastrophe. There could be no waiting around for this to happen. An alternative was required.
While the estates might have presupposed the establishment of a thriving, indigenous artisanal industry, the outcome was to prove to be rather different. Even in 1984, Picornell was able to reflect on the way in which the estates had come to serve tourism or to be littered with cash and carrys. Tourism, and all that it bred, including greater consumerism, was all-consuming, and there was of course no catastrophe.
Industry which predated tourism, such as textiles and chemicals, did largely disappear. But had it been necessary for industry, rather than tourism, to dominate, what might the consequences have been? Environmentally, they could have been more savage than anything tourism has served up. And who could possibly say that its competitiveness would have come close to that of tourism? Having a phobia is one thing, eliminating it and replacing it with something else is quite another.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Agriculture's Contribution To Tourism
There does perhaps need to be a reminder as to the "purposes" of the tourist tax. The text of the legislation published on 30 March for what is officially the "sustainable tourism tax" states what the revenue is intended for. Under Article 19, the first of five broad purposes reads: the protection, conservation, modernisation and recuperation of the natural, rural, agrarian and marine environment.
While this is a wide catch-all for environmental conservation, the third element (agrarian) is rather more specific than the other three. Or it appears to be. Agrarian conservation means aid to farming. Doesn't it? Well, not necessarily. There would be indirect benefits, but the intention is not for revenue to be spent as some form of aid to farmers but as a means of preserving agricultural land.
One accepts that the breadth of Article 19 is open to interpretation, but fundamentally the specific reference to "agrarian" is a recognition - at least in theory - of the need to maintain and improve the agricultural landscape. In so doing, again according to theory, the overall tourist experience will be enhanced.
Already, however, the interpretations are being opened. The union of farmers in Mallorca has demanded that revenue from the tax is made available to "support the work" of the farming community. It says that there should be an annual plan to assist with providing quality produce by means of compensation for work already done to preserve the landscape.
It has become evident that all manner of organisations, town halls and others are lobbying for tax revenue and are thus submitting their proposals accordingly. The farmers' union can therefore be excused for seeking a share of the pie even if, as was understood in the drafting of the legislation, financial aid for production wasn't intended to be part of the package.
As far as the general aim for agricultural landscape preservation is concerned, this seems reasonable enough. While I personally disagree with the ethos of the tax, now that it exists, then spending some of the cash in this way is laudable enough. The tourist experience is enhanced by landscapes of almond blossom, orange trees, vineyards, olive groves and what have you. These landscapes in themselves attract tourism, so why not spend some revenue on them?
Production is a different matter. The farmers would argue that the tourist experience will be further enhanced by there being "quality produce", but isn't there such quality already? What are all those marks for this that or the other, the designations of origin, the regulatory councils intended for, if not quality? It sounds as if the farmers may just be protesting too much.
It isn't as if this produce doesn't already find its way onto the plates and into the mouths of tourists. Hotels and restaurants have increasingly set about sourcing locally (a key aspect of sustainability that hasn't required the constant mention of the word, as it has been happening for a fair old time). There are regular promotions which involve the hotels. This summer, for instance, there was one for milk.
But note what the union says. Assistance would be to compensate for work done in preservation. This has echoes, for example, of what Arta town hall has argued. It has demanded greater financial contribution in recognition of the municipality having preserved its coastline and foregone the financial benefits of more intensive tourism. The town hall has a point but it is being somewhat disingenuous: the coastline and general infrastructure have been obstacles in any event. Likewise, the farmers are being disingenuous. Yes, they do preserve the landscape, but this comes with the territory, so to speak. It's part of what they do.
In a wider sense, what is or what should be the relationship between agriculture and tourism? The simple one, economically, is the provision of produce, and it is this relationship which underpins work by organisations such as Solimar International or which is contained in recommendations from the International Trade Centre. But this relationship has overwhelmingly been considered from the point of view of underdeveloped or developing economies: not comparatively mature ones such as Mallorca's.
As such, it is difficult to ascertain precisely what the relationship is and so what the benefit is or might be. Studies have looked at the contribution of agrotourism, for example, but this isn't what the government is driving at: it is the contribution of the landscape.
Where the farmers may have a point, however, is in guaranteeing the future of the agriculture sector and so its role in preservation. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes. Agriculture may contribute a mere 1.1% to GDP and employ only 2.4% of the workforce (one that is getting older), but these aren't reasons not to maintain it or to preserve the land it uses. The use of the tax might actually constitute a groundbreaking initiative by the government.
While this is a wide catch-all for environmental conservation, the third element (agrarian) is rather more specific than the other three. Or it appears to be. Agrarian conservation means aid to farming. Doesn't it? Well, not necessarily. There would be indirect benefits, but the intention is not for revenue to be spent as some form of aid to farmers but as a means of preserving agricultural land.
One accepts that the breadth of Article 19 is open to interpretation, but fundamentally the specific reference to "agrarian" is a recognition - at least in theory - of the need to maintain and improve the agricultural landscape. In so doing, again according to theory, the overall tourist experience will be enhanced.
Already, however, the interpretations are being opened. The union of farmers in Mallorca has demanded that revenue from the tax is made available to "support the work" of the farming community. It says that there should be an annual plan to assist with providing quality produce by means of compensation for work already done to preserve the landscape.
It has become evident that all manner of organisations, town halls and others are lobbying for tax revenue and are thus submitting their proposals accordingly. The farmers' union can therefore be excused for seeking a share of the pie even if, as was understood in the drafting of the legislation, financial aid for production wasn't intended to be part of the package.
As far as the general aim for agricultural landscape preservation is concerned, this seems reasonable enough. While I personally disagree with the ethos of the tax, now that it exists, then spending some of the cash in this way is laudable enough. The tourist experience is enhanced by landscapes of almond blossom, orange trees, vineyards, olive groves and what have you. These landscapes in themselves attract tourism, so why not spend some revenue on them?
Production is a different matter. The farmers would argue that the tourist experience will be further enhanced by there being "quality produce", but isn't there such quality already? What are all those marks for this that or the other, the designations of origin, the regulatory councils intended for, if not quality? It sounds as if the farmers may just be protesting too much.
It isn't as if this produce doesn't already find its way onto the plates and into the mouths of tourists. Hotels and restaurants have increasingly set about sourcing locally (a key aspect of sustainability that hasn't required the constant mention of the word, as it has been happening for a fair old time). There are regular promotions which involve the hotels. This summer, for instance, there was one for milk.
But note what the union says. Assistance would be to compensate for work done in preservation. This has echoes, for example, of what Arta town hall has argued. It has demanded greater financial contribution in recognition of the municipality having preserved its coastline and foregone the financial benefits of more intensive tourism. The town hall has a point but it is being somewhat disingenuous: the coastline and general infrastructure have been obstacles in any event. Likewise, the farmers are being disingenuous. Yes, they do preserve the landscape, but this comes with the territory, so to speak. It's part of what they do.
In a wider sense, what is or what should be the relationship between agriculture and tourism? The simple one, economically, is the provision of produce, and it is this relationship which underpins work by organisations such as Solimar International or which is contained in recommendations from the International Trade Centre. But this relationship has overwhelmingly been considered from the point of view of underdeveloped or developing economies: not comparatively mature ones such as Mallorca's.
As such, it is difficult to ascertain precisely what the relationship is and so what the benefit is or might be. Studies have looked at the contribution of agrotourism, for example, but this isn't what the government is driving at: it is the contribution of the landscape.
Where the farmers may have a point, however, is in guaranteeing the future of the agriculture sector and so its role in preservation. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes. Agriculture may contribute a mere 1.1% to GDP and employ only 2.4% of the workforce (one that is getting older), but these aren't reasons not to maintain it or to preserve the land it uses. The use of the tax might actually constitute a groundbreaking initiative by the government.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
You Are What You Grow: Mallorca's fairs
They haven't been celebrating the almond for long in Santa Margalida. Today is only the fourth of the town's almond fairs, an appendage to celebrations for Sant Mateu, themselves an add-on to the La Beata fiestas, which only ended a fortnight ago. Sant Mateu, aka Matthew, is something of a saintly afterthought, picking his way through the shattered pitchers of the Mallorcan home-grown saintliness of La Beata in staking a claim to be remembered.
Almonds are not unique to Santa Margalida. Indeed it is probably fair to say that they are more associated with land to the south, such as in and around Marratxi and Calvia. Where the latter is concerned, the almond was given an honourable mention during the opening address for the fiestas in Santa Ponsa. As part of the town's gastronomy, its role in pastries was applauded, while other produce from Calvia was also referred to - aubergines, for example.
Nevertheless, the almond has long featured in the rural economy of Santa Margalida, and the fair is indicative of its importance to this economy, while its introduction in 2012 was more than simply the creation of another event in the town's social calendar. It was also a means of increasing awareness of threats to the local almond business that were coming from drought and fungus. The fair was a way of reminding relevant authorities that the almond is a precious crop for Mallorca and that it required rather more attention than it had been getting, with so much more attention having been given to an expansion of olive production at the expense of the almond.
There will, inevitably, be a part of the fair dedicated to almond-based gastronomy. Most typically associated with pastries and cakes and also of course ice-cream - Mallorca's indigenous ice-cream manufacture arose more than two centuries ago because of the almond - it also finds its way into other types of cuisine.
The versatility of Mallorca's crops has become increasingly evident because of the number of fairs that are devoted to agricultural production in individual towns and villages and so also to the type of dish that comes from these crops. The produce of the land has become the theme for many a fair. So much so that a town or village is defined by what it grows or at least for what it is principally noted for growing. Hence, Sa Pobla is the town of the potato people; Soller is orange town and orange folk; Binissalem is "grapesville". There are others: Caimari is olives and especially olive oil, Porreres is apricots, Lloret is figs, Vilafranca melons, Muro pumpkins.
But this highlighting of specific crops obscures the fact that there are, of course, many others. In Muro, as an example, the pumpkin fair is a bit of a contrivance. Yes, there are pumpkins grown but they are not the principal crop or anything like it. Muro shares with Sa Pobla an earth for vegetable production that gives rise to, among others, the cabbage and the artichoke. So valuable is local artichoke farming that the Guardia has had in the past to be pressed into service and undertake artichoke watch: thieves were nicking artichokes in the dead of night.
Certain towns, however, are defined by more than one main crop. Sa Pobla is one the best examples. While it is Potato Central in Mallorca, it is also Rice Central. They've dabbled with theming events along rice lines in Sa Pobla, always aware though of the sensitivities of its potato identity, the potato having begun to assume importance for the local economy roughly a hundred years before rice production in Albufera started in any meaningful fashion. Care needs to be exercised when the populace identifies so much with one product of the land, but nevertheless the town hall is to embark on a rice gastronomy route - "arròs pobler" - as a means of attracting more visitors to the town.
So, the fruit and veg-themed fairs reveal town and village folk who are what they grow, but among all these various crops there is one that seems to be missing and it is one right at the centre of traditional, peasant cooking. There is, as far as I am aware, no cabbage fair. Might the cabbage offer, therefore, a niche fair theme for town halls on the lookout for giving a boost to their fair calendar? Or maybe it's the lot of the humble cabbage that it doesn't lend itself to a diversity of gastronomy that other crops do. In which case, what about the equally humble carrot? Any takers? The carrot does, after all, share something in common with Santa Margalida and its almond. Cake.
Almonds are not unique to Santa Margalida. Indeed it is probably fair to say that they are more associated with land to the south, such as in and around Marratxi and Calvia. Where the latter is concerned, the almond was given an honourable mention during the opening address for the fiestas in Santa Ponsa. As part of the town's gastronomy, its role in pastries was applauded, while other produce from Calvia was also referred to - aubergines, for example.
Nevertheless, the almond has long featured in the rural economy of Santa Margalida, and the fair is indicative of its importance to this economy, while its introduction in 2012 was more than simply the creation of another event in the town's social calendar. It was also a means of increasing awareness of threats to the local almond business that were coming from drought and fungus. The fair was a way of reminding relevant authorities that the almond is a precious crop for Mallorca and that it required rather more attention than it had been getting, with so much more attention having been given to an expansion of olive production at the expense of the almond.
There will, inevitably, be a part of the fair dedicated to almond-based gastronomy. Most typically associated with pastries and cakes and also of course ice-cream - Mallorca's indigenous ice-cream manufacture arose more than two centuries ago because of the almond - it also finds its way into other types of cuisine.
The versatility of Mallorca's crops has become increasingly evident because of the number of fairs that are devoted to agricultural production in individual towns and villages and so also to the type of dish that comes from these crops. The produce of the land has become the theme for many a fair. So much so that a town or village is defined by what it grows or at least for what it is principally noted for growing. Hence, Sa Pobla is the town of the potato people; Soller is orange town and orange folk; Binissalem is "grapesville". There are others: Caimari is olives and especially olive oil, Porreres is apricots, Lloret is figs, Vilafranca melons, Muro pumpkins.
But this highlighting of specific crops obscures the fact that there are, of course, many others. In Muro, as an example, the pumpkin fair is a bit of a contrivance. Yes, there are pumpkins grown but they are not the principal crop or anything like it. Muro shares with Sa Pobla an earth for vegetable production that gives rise to, among others, the cabbage and the artichoke. So valuable is local artichoke farming that the Guardia has had in the past to be pressed into service and undertake artichoke watch: thieves were nicking artichokes in the dead of night.
Certain towns, however, are defined by more than one main crop. Sa Pobla is one the best examples. While it is Potato Central in Mallorca, it is also Rice Central. They've dabbled with theming events along rice lines in Sa Pobla, always aware though of the sensitivities of its potato identity, the potato having begun to assume importance for the local economy roughly a hundred years before rice production in Albufera started in any meaningful fashion. Care needs to be exercised when the populace identifies so much with one product of the land, but nevertheless the town hall is to embark on a rice gastronomy route - "arròs pobler" - as a means of attracting more visitors to the town.
So, the fruit and veg-themed fairs reveal town and village folk who are what they grow, but among all these various crops there is one that seems to be missing and it is one right at the centre of traditional, peasant cooking. There is, as far as I am aware, no cabbage fair. Might the cabbage offer, therefore, a niche fair theme for town halls on the lookout for giving a boost to their fair calendar? Or maybe it's the lot of the humble cabbage that it doesn't lend itself to a diversity of gastronomy that other crops do. In which case, what about the equally humble carrot? Any takers? The carrot does, after all, share something in common with Santa Margalida and its almond. Cake.
Monday, June 08, 2015
A Short History Of The Potato
There has long been debate as to who actually was responsible for introducing the potato to England. But regardless of the competing claims of Sir Francis Drake or Thomas Harriot, the potato was to prove to be a grand agricultural success. But before it turned up in England, it had appeared in Spain, which is only logical given that the Spaniards had been all over southern America like a rash from the moment that Columbus didn't discover America but rather the Caribbean. By the second half of the sixteenth century, the potato was being cultivated in Spain, such as in the Basque Country, but its migration to other parts of the country was slow. And right at the back of the potato revolution queue was Mallorca.
They held the annual potato fair in Sa Pobla at the weekend. The spud is to Sa Pobla as the orange is to Sóller, yet remarkably enough it was Sóller where it was once cultivated in some abundance, possibly equally as much as in Sa Pobla. But this cultivation wasn't to occur, with anything like intensity, until roughly 300 years after the Spaniards of empire had first introduced the potato to Spain.
It was the Menorcans who were responsible, and they in turn had the British to thank. Wherever the Briton roamed in occupation, he took the potato with him, and so Menorca became the nursery for what was, many years later, to become a primary source of Sa Pobla's agricultural economy.
It was, it would seem, one Alexandre de Cauterac who was the chief initial advocate of the potato. In 1799, he recognised that the potato could become an important crop as part of the recovery of parts of the Albufera wetlands next to Sa Pobla. While the reclaiming of the wetlands through the drainage by the British engineers in the second half of the nineteenth century is rightly recognised as having created greater agricultural possibilities, there had already been some small-scale reclaiming. The land was deemed suitable for vegetable growing. Up until then, Sa Pobla's economy had been based on vines, cereals, hemp and flax. Despite the water of the wetlands, the town's agriculture, and indeed the town itself, was relatively poor. In the sixteenth century, for example, it had been observed that "the village which is poorest in water ... is that of Sa Pobla, where the number of wells does not even reach ten".
But even once the potato was revealed to the island, the cultivation was slow to take off. Mallorca's Captain General offered a prize in 1816 for the best potatoes to be grown in Alcudia and Sa Pobla. Twenty years later the Mallorcan Economic Society of Friends of the Land were issuing reports commending cultivation, but though the potato was being grown, the volume was such that it was almost a luxury. The Sóller growers of the mid-1860s were able to command high prices for this new and delicious food. Nevertheless, the potato's popularity among Sa Pobla's farming community was on the rise. Though he didn't specifically identify the potato, the Archduke Louis Salvador, whose "Die Balearen" was as much a census of economic production on Majorca as a work of cultural observation, was able to say in 1872 that 477 hectares of production on marshy farmland included vegetables, by which he mainly meant the potato.
Initially, the potatoes were grown as animal feed. There was a reluctance to eat something that was grown in soil, as there was an assumption that it might not be good for the health. But elsewhere, such as in France, the potato was gaining a reputation as the "bread of the poor", so by around the mid-nineteenth century cultivation started to take off, albeit it was to remain mostly for personal consumption rather than to be on a grand scale. The Archduke could see that there was development, but it wasn't until the British engineers got to work that there was the land for more intensive production.
Different varieties of potato were introduced but it was to be the Royal Kidney variety which was to truly turn Sa Pobla into the potato economy it became, and this didn't appear until 1924. By then, the town's potatoes were being exported to the UK, but with the Royal Kidney, production grew massively and so did the export trade. Sa Pobla was to become a part of British eating habits: the town was exporting a variety of new potato. As the town had also benefited from the introduction of rice in Albufera around the turn of the twentieth century, this once poor agricultural town ceased to be poor.
So, the potato fair - a celebration of the gastronomy, very much removed from the days when there was a reluctance to eat potatoes - symbolises Sa Pobla's potato agricultural tradition: a tradition which is more recent than one might have thought.
They held the annual potato fair in Sa Pobla at the weekend. The spud is to Sa Pobla as the orange is to Sóller, yet remarkably enough it was Sóller where it was once cultivated in some abundance, possibly equally as much as in Sa Pobla. But this cultivation wasn't to occur, with anything like intensity, until roughly 300 years after the Spaniards of empire had first introduced the potato to Spain.
It was the Menorcans who were responsible, and they in turn had the British to thank. Wherever the Briton roamed in occupation, he took the potato with him, and so Menorca became the nursery for what was, many years later, to become a primary source of Sa Pobla's agricultural economy.
It was, it would seem, one Alexandre de Cauterac who was the chief initial advocate of the potato. In 1799, he recognised that the potato could become an important crop as part of the recovery of parts of the Albufera wetlands next to Sa Pobla. While the reclaiming of the wetlands through the drainage by the British engineers in the second half of the nineteenth century is rightly recognised as having created greater agricultural possibilities, there had already been some small-scale reclaiming. The land was deemed suitable for vegetable growing. Up until then, Sa Pobla's economy had been based on vines, cereals, hemp and flax. Despite the water of the wetlands, the town's agriculture, and indeed the town itself, was relatively poor. In the sixteenth century, for example, it had been observed that "the village which is poorest in water ... is that of Sa Pobla, where the number of wells does not even reach ten".
But even once the potato was revealed to the island, the cultivation was slow to take off. Mallorca's Captain General offered a prize in 1816 for the best potatoes to be grown in Alcudia and Sa Pobla. Twenty years later the Mallorcan Economic Society of Friends of the Land were issuing reports commending cultivation, but though the potato was being grown, the volume was such that it was almost a luxury. The Sóller growers of the mid-1860s were able to command high prices for this new and delicious food. Nevertheless, the potato's popularity among Sa Pobla's farming community was on the rise. Though he didn't specifically identify the potato, the Archduke Louis Salvador, whose "Die Balearen" was as much a census of economic production on Majorca as a work of cultural observation, was able to say in 1872 that 477 hectares of production on marshy farmland included vegetables, by which he mainly meant the potato.
Initially, the potatoes were grown as animal feed. There was a reluctance to eat something that was grown in soil, as there was an assumption that it might not be good for the health. But elsewhere, such as in France, the potato was gaining a reputation as the "bread of the poor", so by around the mid-nineteenth century cultivation started to take off, albeit it was to remain mostly for personal consumption rather than to be on a grand scale. The Archduke could see that there was development, but it wasn't until the British engineers got to work that there was the land for more intensive production.
Different varieties of potato were introduced but it was to be the Royal Kidney variety which was to truly turn Sa Pobla into the potato economy it became, and this didn't appear until 1924. By then, the town's potatoes were being exported to the UK, but with the Royal Kidney, production grew massively and so did the export trade. Sa Pobla was to become a part of British eating habits: the town was exporting a variety of new potato. As the town had also benefited from the introduction of rice in Albufera around the turn of the twentieth century, this once poor agricultural town ceased to be poor.
So, the potato fair - a celebration of the gastronomy, very much removed from the days when there was a reluctance to eat potatoes - symbolises Sa Pobla's potato agricultural tradition: a tradition which is more recent than one might have thought.
Sunday, May 03, 2015
The Town Which Time Passed By
We may be three years away, but one can presume that in early May 2018 they'll be making a fair old song and dance in the old town of Sineu, and the reason will be the spring fair: it will be seven hundred years since the first one took place. Sineu's fair, considered to be the most important of the Mallorcan spring, holds a very special place in the island's history. It can definitively state that its first fair was held in 1318 and so can claim to be the oldest in the island's "part forana", i.e. anywhere which isn't Palma. The citizens of Inca might take issue with this claim, but as they cannot - because of a lack of accurate documentation - state unequivocally when their spring fair started, Sineu holds the crown. Each early May, therefore, Sineu reclaims an ancient status as the unofficial capital of the "part forana", one that had more official status because of the one-time palace of the kings of Mallorca: having been a Moorish building, it was redeveloped in the early fourteenth century.
Sineu's royal patronage from those times was both usual and unusual. The usual part was that it was one of a number of "royal" villages established by King Jaume II in 1300. The unusual was the fair. Holding one required the granting of royal privilege. Only Sineu and Inca were given this, and the two towns - rivals up to a point - jealously guarded this privilege for nigh on 250 years until Llucmajor, petitioning the Spanish king, was also given the right to have a fair. Even in those days, however, its challenge wasn't straightforward and required the intervention of the courts. Sineu and Inca filed a lawsuit but eventually lost: the tradition of seeking legal redress in Mallorca is as much of a tradition as the island's fairs.
One of the odd things about Sineu is that, despite this old importance, it didn't become one of the large towns in the "part forana". Even now, its population doesn't stretch to 4,000 inhabitants and so is roughly a tenth of that of Llucmajor, which is larger than Inca by around 6,000 residents. Maybe, however, it has been a blessing: Sineu doesn't have some of the ugliness of the industrial developments of the larger towns. Nevertheless, it is a matter of conjecture as to why its development was arrested. It is, after all, right in the very heartland of Mallorca, even if its claim to provide the geographical centre of the island has, once and for all, been dismissed: geographers have established that this is in neighbouring Lloret de Vistalegre. Perhaps, however, it is this centrality which was the issue. Inca was on the route from Palma to the port of Alcudia, not so far to the north, while Manacor and Llucmajor were both similarly closer to ports.
There is some substance to this theory and it is provided by documentation from the very early days of Mallorca's tourism at the start of the last century. In 1908, the Mallorca Tourist Board considered a number of projects for the improvement of the transport infrastructure. One of these involved the building of a "carretera" (main road) from Sineu to Alcudia. However, even once this was indeed built, it was not direct as it had to pass through Maria de la Salut and Santa Margalida. Quite simply, Sineu's location was not terribly advantageous.
Likewise, in tourism terms, Sineu was all but neglected. Casting an eye over the annals of the tourist board up until the outbreak of the Civil War, there is no mention of the town, other than when the need for the road cropped up, and this oversight included the fair. One of the earliest initiatives in tourism development (from the 1920s) was that of promoting fairs and fiestas. Sineu's, it would appear, was not one of them. Consequently, and with coastal and mountain tourism having become the fads of the pre-war years, Sineu, minus burgeoning industries such as those of Inca and Manacor, remained firmly wedded to its agriculture.
And it is this farming tradition which forms the basis for today's Sineu fair. It is a tradition associated with most of the island's spring and autumn fairs, but in Sineu it is absolutely central, as befits a town with its central, rural location. It is a fair which represents the peasant economy of old Mallorca and one which, in terms of authenticity, has few rivals. It is a fair of former times that celebrates the agriculture of Mallorca's plain: a celebration that goes back almost seven hundred years.
Sineu's royal patronage from those times was both usual and unusual. The usual part was that it was one of a number of "royal" villages established by King Jaume II in 1300. The unusual was the fair. Holding one required the granting of royal privilege. Only Sineu and Inca were given this, and the two towns - rivals up to a point - jealously guarded this privilege for nigh on 250 years until Llucmajor, petitioning the Spanish king, was also given the right to have a fair. Even in those days, however, its challenge wasn't straightforward and required the intervention of the courts. Sineu and Inca filed a lawsuit but eventually lost: the tradition of seeking legal redress in Mallorca is as much of a tradition as the island's fairs.
One of the odd things about Sineu is that, despite this old importance, it didn't become one of the large towns in the "part forana". Even now, its population doesn't stretch to 4,000 inhabitants and so is roughly a tenth of that of Llucmajor, which is larger than Inca by around 6,000 residents. Maybe, however, it has been a blessing: Sineu doesn't have some of the ugliness of the industrial developments of the larger towns. Nevertheless, it is a matter of conjecture as to why its development was arrested. It is, after all, right in the very heartland of Mallorca, even if its claim to provide the geographical centre of the island has, once and for all, been dismissed: geographers have established that this is in neighbouring Lloret de Vistalegre. Perhaps, however, it is this centrality which was the issue. Inca was on the route from Palma to the port of Alcudia, not so far to the north, while Manacor and Llucmajor were both similarly closer to ports.
There is some substance to this theory and it is provided by documentation from the very early days of Mallorca's tourism at the start of the last century. In 1908, the Mallorca Tourist Board considered a number of projects for the improvement of the transport infrastructure. One of these involved the building of a "carretera" (main road) from Sineu to Alcudia. However, even once this was indeed built, it was not direct as it had to pass through Maria de la Salut and Santa Margalida. Quite simply, Sineu's location was not terribly advantageous.
Likewise, in tourism terms, Sineu was all but neglected. Casting an eye over the annals of the tourist board up until the outbreak of the Civil War, there is no mention of the town, other than when the need for the road cropped up, and this oversight included the fair. One of the earliest initiatives in tourism development (from the 1920s) was that of promoting fairs and fiestas. Sineu's, it would appear, was not one of them. Consequently, and with coastal and mountain tourism having become the fads of the pre-war years, Sineu, minus burgeoning industries such as those of Inca and Manacor, remained firmly wedded to its agriculture.
And it is this farming tradition which forms the basis for today's Sineu fair. It is a tradition associated with most of the island's spring and autumn fairs, but in Sineu it is absolutely central, as befits a town with its central, rural location. It is a fair which represents the peasant economy of old Mallorca and one which, in terms of authenticity, has few rivals. It is a fair of former times that celebrates the agriculture of Mallorca's plain: a celebration that goes back almost seven hundred years.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Company Law: Balearics farming legislation
Of ministers in the regional government, there is one who has been spent the period of this administration going about his business in a generally quiet and effective manner. Gabriel Company, minister for the environment, agriculture and land, has not courted attention, yet he has been responsible for laws with far-reaching consequences which are, for the most part, sound in their drafting and to be welcomed. These are the laws for land, fishing and farming.
It hasn't all been plain sailing for Company. He became embroiled in the controversy of the supposedly private trip to Cabrera with former education minister Rafael Bosch which benefited from public money and during which lobster and champagne were consumed; an extravagance which gave opponents a target at which to aim and one that they fired at with relish. He was criticised over the maintenance of forests following the Andratx fire last year, and more recently he failed to convince a sceptical public and opposition that the regional government was unaware of test soundings for oil in Balearic waters. A minister's life is never smooth, but on balance he has been doing a good job, so much so that he has been dubbed "untouchable"; the one minister who Bauzá could ill afford to lose or be prepared to move on.
This untouchability was put to the test over those oil tests. It appeared to many that Company was being hung out to dry by a president eager to distance himself from any hint of regional complicity in oil prospecting. The relationship between the two was already strained, but Bauzá would have appreciated that Company, with his remit for reform on several fronts, had to be held onto. These reforms, while they may have lacked the headlining qualities of those to do with education or tourism, have been central to the government's deregulatory philosophy (where it has suited the government to de-regulate).
The farming law has now finally received full parliamentary approval. It isn't without its controversies, but it is a law which, unusually for Balearics legislation, has been greeted with satisfaction by elements that typically might be expected to oppose Partido Popular legislation regardless of what it contains. The farmers' union has backed it, as has a former agriculture minister, Mateu Morro, who is a member of the PSM socialists, a party with a close association with the green and environmentalist lobby.
The main thrust of the law is to make agricultural land more productive through diversification. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes, yet agriculture is a sector which contributes a mere 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the economy and employs a similarly meagre percentage of the workforce, 2.4%. And this workforce is one characterised by its age: there are far too few younger workers in the industry. The diversification, aimed at increasing productivity and at providing new opportunities for business and employment, envisages new activities, such as the opening of hostels for tourists, of shops and of sports facilities with an essentially rural flavour; the sports would, therefore, be related to equestrianism as well as to cycling and hiking. There is even provision for short-term camping. This only allows farms to host a maximum of ten people for two nights, but it is a measure which represents something of a breakthrough for an activity - camping - which has been repressed for too long.
There is a good deal of joined-up governmental thinking. The law will expand rural tourism, though this hasn't met with the full approval of hoteliers as it is farm proprietors who will benefit from this additional tourism. In order to remove any potential objections from the hotel sector, the tourism decree has recognised the changes in use of farming land and brought these within the scope of the tourism ministry's granting of permissions for rural tourism.
There may yet be a challenge to an aspect of the law to do with tree felling. The Balearics association of environment agents, i.e. professionals who work in forestry and the broader environment and is a self-styled environmental police, believes that permissiveness with regard to felling and logging will endanger certain species and increase risks of fires (because of the residue from felling). It is considering a challenge to the law, arguing that it conflicts with state law on natural spaces and the protection of species.
Objections from environmentalist groups are to be expected and are understandable, but this isn't a law that has been greeted with the full force of environmentalist ire. And a reason why may well lie with Company's credibility. He enjoys the confidence of the farming community and of opposition politicians because he comes from the agriculture industry. He was brought into the regional government as an independent precisely because he understood the industry. Other ministerial appointments might benefit from a similar profile.
It hasn't all been plain sailing for Company. He became embroiled in the controversy of the supposedly private trip to Cabrera with former education minister Rafael Bosch which benefited from public money and during which lobster and champagne were consumed; an extravagance which gave opponents a target at which to aim and one that they fired at with relish. He was criticised over the maintenance of forests following the Andratx fire last year, and more recently he failed to convince a sceptical public and opposition that the regional government was unaware of test soundings for oil in Balearic waters. A minister's life is never smooth, but on balance he has been doing a good job, so much so that he has been dubbed "untouchable"; the one minister who Bauzá could ill afford to lose or be prepared to move on.
This untouchability was put to the test over those oil tests. It appeared to many that Company was being hung out to dry by a president eager to distance himself from any hint of regional complicity in oil prospecting. The relationship between the two was already strained, but Bauzá would have appreciated that Company, with his remit for reform on several fronts, had to be held onto. These reforms, while they may have lacked the headlining qualities of those to do with education or tourism, have been central to the government's deregulatory philosophy (where it has suited the government to de-regulate).
The farming law has now finally received full parliamentary approval. It isn't without its controversies, but it is a law which, unusually for Balearics legislation, has been greeted with satisfaction by elements that typically might be expected to oppose Partido Popular legislation regardless of what it contains. The farmers' union has backed it, as has a former agriculture minister, Mateu Morro, who is a member of the PSM socialists, a party with a close association with the green and environmentalist lobby.
The main thrust of the law is to make agricultural land more productive through diversification. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes, yet agriculture is a sector which contributes a mere 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the economy and employs a similarly meagre percentage of the workforce, 2.4%. And this workforce is one characterised by its age: there are far too few younger workers in the industry. The diversification, aimed at increasing productivity and at providing new opportunities for business and employment, envisages new activities, such as the opening of hostels for tourists, of shops and of sports facilities with an essentially rural flavour; the sports would, therefore, be related to equestrianism as well as to cycling and hiking. There is even provision for short-term camping. This only allows farms to host a maximum of ten people for two nights, but it is a measure which represents something of a breakthrough for an activity - camping - which has been repressed for too long.
There is a good deal of joined-up governmental thinking. The law will expand rural tourism, though this hasn't met with the full approval of hoteliers as it is farm proprietors who will benefit from this additional tourism. In order to remove any potential objections from the hotel sector, the tourism decree has recognised the changes in use of farming land and brought these within the scope of the tourism ministry's granting of permissions for rural tourism.
There may yet be a challenge to an aspect of the law to do with tree felling. The Balearics association of environment agents, i.e. professionals who work in forestry and the broader environment and is a self-styled environmental police, believes that permissiveness with regard to felling and logging will endanger certain species and increase risks of fires (because of the residue from felling). It is considering a challenge to the law, arguing that it conflicts with state law on natural spaces and the protection of species.
Objections from environmentalist groups are to be expected and are understandable, but this isn't a law that has been greeted with the full force of environmentalist ire. And a reason why may well lie with Company's credibility. He enjoys the confidence of the farming community and of opposition politicians because he comes from the agriculture industry. He was brought into the regional government as an independent precisely because he understood the industry. Other ministerial appointments might benefit from a similar profile.
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Selling The Countryside
Mallorca has a total land area of 3,640 square kilometres and it has 41 municipalities which are categorised as being rural. Qualification for being a rural or an urban municipality throws up one or two anomalies. Of the twelve municipalities considered to be urban, there isn't much debate with some of them - Palma, for example - but Sa Pobla is categorised as being urban, despite it being the centre for the island's potato-growing trade (and other agriculture), and Binissalem, the main centre of the island's wine trade, is also "urban". The determinant of rural or urban is the number of inhabitants per square kilometre: 150 or more, then it's urban; fewer, then it's rural.
Anomalies or not, 73% of the land is occupied by rural municipalities, while 62% of all Mallorca's land is categorised as being Superficie Agricola Utilizada - land that is used for farming purposes. From a report entitled the "Programme for Rural Development in the Balearic Islands 2007-2013" that was issued by the Balearic Government and the European Commission in May 2010, we learn that this 62% of land contributes 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the local economy and that 2.4% of the working population is engaged in agriculture.
We further learn that between 1999 and 2005 in the Balearics as a whole the number of agricultural business declined by almost a third and that the age profile of those working in the agricultural industry was heavily skewed towards older workers. Over 62% were over 60 years of age and 20% were aged between 50 and 59. None of the figures has changed markedly since the report was issued.
Agriculture does require a lot of land. That almost two-thirds of Mallorca's land is dedicated to agricultural use isn't necessarily an issue, but issues there most certainly are in terms of the productive use of this land, the decline in the number of agricultural businesses and the alarming lack of employment among younger people.
The 2010 report set out a number of areas for consideration, not least those for diversification, and the regional government now wishes to act by introducing legislation designed to stimulate economic activity in the agricultural sector and indeed to preserve the countryside. The minister responsible for agriculture, Biel Company, who was brought into the government from the agriculture industry, has unveiled the farming bill, but rather than it being greeted with praise it has been met with howls of protest.
What Company's bill envisages is something similar to that which was contained in the 2012 tourism law, namely that there can be secondary activities. The tourism law permits hotels to offer things which are open to the general public which previously had not been permitted (rock concerts, to give one example). The farming bill would permit the opening of restaurants and shops as well as the establishing of sporting activities of a country style, e.g. equestrianism, and possibly the building of processing plants or mills.
The protests against the bill have come from different sources: the environmentalists GOB and from business - the Balearics business confederation and the restaurant association. Where business is concerned, there is no opposition if produce that comes from a farm is then sold, but there is opposition if the bill means that any type of product could be sold. GOB believes that the bill would represent the sale of the countryside to speculators. Rather than preservation of the countryside, the bill would lead to its destruction.
But Company, an agriculture man and arguably the only cabinet minister at the regional government with any real credibility, has got a strong case, especially when one takes into account the employment profile. Preservation of the countryside comes in different forms, but if there's no one working on it, then it will not be preserved. Instead, it will be abandoned, and it is potential abandonment that he is trying to avoid.
The bill will also attempt to cut through much of the red tape regarding land use. So long as the agricultural land holder is registered with a municipality, this will be sufficient for the municipality to authorise a change of use of the land. However, and as was seen with the tourism law, the municipalities fought to retain their rights to veto planning or change of use by hotels, and they won that fight. It is quite possible, therefore, that they will raise their own objections, concerned at seeing their powers being eroded. GOB has said that the bill would in fact eliminate the powers of the municipalities and also of the island councils, but then maybe this wouldn't altogether be a bad thing.
Company has said that the bill will be fundamental in maintaining and developing the rural community over the coming years and in bringing young people back to the land. At times, one feels that people protest too much. It might just be a very good bill.
Anomalies or not, 73% of the land is occupied by rural municipalities, while 62% of all Mallorca's land is categorised as being Superficie Agricola Utilizada - land that is used for farming purposes. From a report entitled the "Programme for Rural Development in the Balearic Islands 2007-2013" that was issued by the Balearic Government and the European Commission in May 2010, we learn that this 62% of land contributes 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the local economy and that 2.4% of the working population is engaged in agriculture.
We further learn that between 1999 and 2005 in the Balearics as a whole the number of agricultural business declined by almost a third and that the age profile of those working in the agricultural industry was heavily skewed towards older workers. Over 62% were over 60 years of age and 20% were aged between 50 and 59. None of the figures has changed markedly since the report was issued.
Agriculture does require a lot of land. That almost two-thirds of Mallorca's land is dedicated to agricultural use isn't necessarily an issue, but issues there most certainly are in terms of the productive use of this land, the decline in the number of agricultural businesses and the alarming lack of employment among younger people.
The 2010 report set out a number of areas for consideration, not least those for diversification, and the regional government now wishes to act by introducing legislation designed to stimulate economic activity in the agricultural sector and indeed to preserve the countryside. The minister responsible for agriculture, Biel Company, who was brought into the government from the agriculture industry, has unveiled the farming bill, but rather than it being greeted with praise it has been met with howls of protest.
What Company's bill envisages is something similar to that which was contained in the 2012 tourism law, namely that there can be secondary activities. The tourism law permits hotels to offer things which are open to the general public which previously had not been permitted (rock concerts, to give one example). The farming bill would permit the opening of restaurants and shops as well as the establishing of sporting activities of a country style, e.g. equestrianism, and possibly the building of processing plants or mills.
The protests against the bill have come from different sources: the environmentalists GOB and from business - the Balearics business confederation and the restaurant association. Where business is concerned, there is no opposition if produce that comes from a farm is then sold, but there is opposition if the bill means that any type of product could be sold. GOB believes that the bill would represent the sale of the countryside to speculators. Rather than preservation of the countryside, the bill would lead to its destruction.
But Company, an agriculture man and arguably the only cabinet minister at the regional government with any real credibility, has got a strong case, especially when one takes into account the employment profile. Preservation of the countryside comes in different forms, but if there's no one working on it, then it will not be preserved. Instead, it will be abandoned, and it is potential abandonment that he is trying to avoid.
The bill will also attempt to cut through much of the red tape regarding land use. So long as the agricultural land holder is registered with a municipality, this will be sufficient for the municipality to authorise a change of use of the land. However, and as was seen with the tourism law, the municipalities fought to retain their rights to veto planning or change of use by hotels, and they won that fight. It is quite possible, therefore, that they will raise their own objections, concerned at seeing their powers being eroded. GOB has said that the bill would in fact eliminate the powers of the municipalities and also of the island councils, but then maybe this wouldn't altogether be a bad thing.
Company has said that the bill will be fundamental in maintaining and developing the rural community over the coming years and in bringing young people back to the land. At times, one feels that people protest too much. It might just be a very good bill.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearics' call for European agricultural aid
Further to yesterday's notice about Asaja, the agricultural businesses association, minister Biel Company has met with the European Union agriculture commissioner to ask for greater European aid to the Balearics, noting the current discrepancy between the Balearics and the Canaries (25 million euros versus 268 million).
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Friday, March 09, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Agriculture wants help to tackle Balearics' insularity
A meeting in Sa Pobla yesterday of Asaja, the agricultural businesses association called for aid measures to come from Madrid in order to tackle the costs of Balearics' insularity. In attendance was agriculture minister at the regional goverment Biel Company, himself a former president of Asaja.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Sunday, June 19, 2011
In Good Company: Agriculture
While Carlos Delgado has attracted most of the attention among the appointments as José Bauzá's ministers, there are others who have dipped below the radar. One of them is the agriculture minister, Gabriel Company.
To be more accurate, Company is to head a super-ministry of agriculture, the environment and land. But it is the agriculture element of this trinity of responsibilities that is the most interesting. It is a post to which Company is eminently suited.
The president of Asaja-Balears, the agriculture business association, Company was a fierce critic of the previous administration of Francesc Antich. In this capacity, he has not always enjoyed the best of relationships with the farmers' union. Nevertheless, the union has said it is happy with his appointment for the very good reason that Company knows the industry.
All the talk of a "professional" heading the tourism ministry overlooked the fact that other ministries might similarly need to be blessed by some independent talent. One reason for neglecting agriculture was that it had, as a ministry, been downgraded by President Antich and been placed within the department of the presidency. The move was designed as a cost-saving one, yet it seemed like a strange one because of what is perceived as the importance of agriculture to Mallorca and the Balearics.
Tourism is by far Mallorca's biggest industry, accounting for roughly 80% of gross domestic product. A professional in charge of the tourism ministry, if you were to appoint one to any ministry, would have made sense, not that he or she could probably have been afforded, as I have said previously.
Agriculture now has one. Company, not actually a member of the Partido Popular, had been fèted at one point by the Unió Mallorquina for a position at the Council of Mallorca, but now he has been placed firmly at the centre of government decision-making, albeit in a ministry which will demand he pays attention to other areas of responsibility as well.
At the time of the election, Company left Bauzá in no doubt that he felt that the PP would be making a mistake in not restoring agriculture as a key ministry. Perhaps he knew something. Whatever, the ministry has indeed been restored, and he is in charge of it.
You may think this is all very sensible. Key industry and all that; there needs to be a dedicated ministry. Everyone knows that Mallorca has its potato and vegetable growing, its almonds, its olives, its vineyards and so on. It has its fairs devoted to the fruits of the land. However, what everyone might not know is that agriculture, which once - back in the early '50s - represented some 40% of the island's economy, now amounts to rather less. 1.7%, if you are being particularly liberal; it is in fact less.
The agriculture spin in Mallorca does not, therefore, quite match up to reality. The industry is still important, but it is not as important as some might think.
Yet, as we know from the fact that TUI keeps banging on about it, there is a relationship between this small industry and the island's chief wealth generator of tourism. It is not just that agriculture helps to maintain tradition and to give a visual appeal, it is also, apart from local consumption generally and export, a source of local supply to the tourism industry.
An issue for Company will be how he might facilitate a growth in the agriculture industry. If demand for local produce is indeed meant to increase as a consequence of sustainable tourism (and were exports to grow), then the industry may face a brighter future after decades of decline.
And Mallorca has land that could be made to be more productive, as opposed to having been allowed to become idle. Last year, for example, there was the case of land in Capdepera that was being looked at for re-cultivation. Furthermore, new forms of agrarianism have been promoted as a way forward for Mallorca, such as by Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization and by an Australian expert on permaculture, Darren Doherty.
Company will seek to reverse what he has called a period of "ignorance, inefficiency and zero interest" in respect of government agricultural policy. Despite agriculture's currently small contribution to the island's economy, it could become, with the right person driving a purposeful strategy, an area of growth. And Company may well be this right person.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
To be more accurate, Company is to head a super-ministry of agriculture, the environment and land. But it is the agriculture element of this trinity of responsibilities that is the most interesting. It is a post to which Company is eminently suited.
The president of Asaja-Balears, the agriculture business association, Company was a fierce critic of the previous administration of Francesc Antich. In this capacity, he has not always enjoyed the best of relationships with the farmers' union. Nevertheless, the union has said it is happy with his appointment for the very good reason that Company knows the industry.
All the talk of a "professional" heading the tourism ministry overlooked the fact that other ministries might similarly need to be blessed by some independent talent. One reason for neglecting agriculture was that it had, as a ministry, been downgraded by President Antich and been placed within the department of the presidency. The move was designed as a cost-saving one, yet it seemed like a strange one because of what is perceived as the importance of agriculture to Mallorca and the Balearics.
Tourism is by far Mallorca's biggest industry, accounting for roughly 80% of gross domestic product. A professional in charge of the tourism ministry, if you were to appoint one to any ministry, would have made sense, not that he or she could probably have been afforded, as I have said previously.
Agriculture now has one. Company, not actually a member of the Partido Popular, had been fèted at one point by the Unió Mallorquina for a position at the Council of Mallorca, but now he has been placed firmly at the centre of government decision-making, albeit in a ministry which will demand he pays attention to other areas of responsibility as well.
At the time of the election, Company left Bauzá in no doubt that he felt that the PP would be making a mistake in not restoring agriculture as a key ministry. Perhaps he knew something. Whatever, the ministry has indeed been restored, and he is in charge of it.
You may think this is all very sensible. Key industry and all that; there needs to be a dedicated ministry. Everyone knows that Mallorca has its potato and vegetable growing, its almonds, its olives, its vineyards and so on. It has its fairs devoted to the fruits of the land. However, what everyone might not know is that agriculture, which once - back in the early '50s - represented some 40% of the island's economy, now amounts to rather less. 1.7%, if you are being particularly liberal; it is in fact less.
The agriculture spin in Mallorca does not, therefore, quite match up to reality. The industry is still important, but it is not as important as some might think.
Yet, as we know from the fact that TUI keeps banging on about it, there is a relationship between this small industry and the island's chief wealth generator of tourism. It is not just that agriculture helps to maintain tradition and to give a visual appeal, it is also, apart from local consumption generally and export, a source of local supply to the tourism industry.
An issue for Company will be how he might facilitate a growth in the agriculture industry. If demand for local produce is indeed meant to increase as a consequence of sustainable tourism (and were exports to grow), then the industry may face a brighter future after decades of decline.
And Mallorca has land that could be made to be more productive, as opposed to having been allowed to become idle. Last year, for example, there was the case of land in Capdepera that was being looked at for re-cultivation. Furthermore, new forms of agrarianism have been promoted as a way forward for Mallorca, such as by Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization and by an Australian expert on permaculture, Darren Doherty.
Company will seek to reverse what he has called a period of "ignorance, inefficiency and zero interest" in respect of government agricultural policy. Despite agriculture's currently small contribution to the island's economy, it could become, with the right person driving a purposeful strategy, an area of growth. And Company may well be this right person.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Back To The Future: The new agriculture
There's a lot of land in Capdepera. An awful lot of land that they don't quite know what to do with. The old municipal rubbish dump had been earmarked for the faintly batty Christian theme park idea. Alcúdia may now be its location.
There's more land in Capdepera. Agricultural land that currently isn't doing anything. They're looking at re-cultivating it with the aims of selling produce to tourists and of creating employment in what is all but a lost agrarian tradition in the town.
The revitalisation of agriculture has become something of a theme bubbling under a wider discussion of the need for economic diversification. A back-to-the-future new agrarianism was spoken about in May this year when a gathering in Alaró, organised by the Camper footwear company, addressed the issue of diversification. It is one that plays well with an insular-nationalist Luddite tendency that would happily turn the clock back on tourism industrialisation.
But the worthies who met in Alaró were far from being cranks. Among their number was Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization who, following something of a farmyard line of thinking, asserted that Mallorca was living a fantasy in believing that tourism would return to being the "hen laying golden eggs". Hens laying real eggs is more like it.
The feasibility of the plan for the land in Capdepera will consider what might be grown there and what might be viable in terms of products for sale to tourists. It is a plan that makes sense. Mander is not the only one who recognises the pointlessness of much more development of a strictly tourist nature - hotels, for example. Alternative uses of land that might be contemplated are similarly either pointless, such as ever more unnecessary golf courses or industrial estates, or would be most unlikely to be sanctioned on environmental grounds - proper theme parks, for instance. So what do you do with it that might be productive, other than perhaps build houses, which would require endless arguments regarding land re-classification?
While the plan appears to make sense insofar as it would be an appropriate use of land, where it may founder is on economic grounds. The problem with the new agrarianism of Mallorca is finding markets for what, in all likelihood, would not be much greater than cottage industries. The wine industry in Mallorca is something of an indicator of this. While there is reasonable volume created by the bigger and older bodegas, the newer ones are much smaller; they are of a boutique nature. Volume is low, prices are high, export possibilities are limited.
The cautiousness which seems to surround the Capdepera scheme is correct. It is correct because the demand for what might be grown - among tourists - is most unlikely to be huge. Herbs, olives (for oil), vines (for wine), dried fruits. None of it sounds like it will amount to anything substantial. Tourists might buy the odd bottle of wine or oil, but they do so already. The focus on tourists may be strategically flawed.
I have to thank the excellent skybluemallorca.com for the following information regarding Mallorcan olive oil. It says that a mere 2.7% of total sales of oil is local. The rest goes abroad, with Germany being a key market. It is export, not through a tourist's bottle or two, but through bulk that is far more important. And not just to mature European markets.
I know of a move to export wine and olive oil to Hong Kong. This involves at least one of the main bodegas on the island. Supplying to the Chinese market could only ever be limited because of the constraints on volume in Mallorca, but this bigger thinking in terms of market should surely be more of a model for what might be envisaged in Capdepera and indeed elsewhere in Mallorca. High-quality product, not necessarily cheap but more exclusive, and marketed as such, for newly aspirational consumer markets, such as the Chinese.
There is though a further issue and it is one related to productivity and the use of technology. Advances there most certainly have been, but one of Mallorca's more important crops, almonds, has suffered because the local industry has lost competitiveness. In the same way as the wine producers of the Napa Valley in California took on the French wine industry by adopting more advanced technology, so California's almond growers have attacked the indigenous almond industry.
What all this suggests is that, just as there should be a more coherent tourism strategy so there also should be one for agriculture. Back to the future it might be, but there is still much to be said in its favour. With investments in technology and marketing, there might even be a bright future. The fear is that Capdepera would fall into the black hole of simply being too local and too narrow in its focus. It is a lot of a land, but only relatively speaking. But it can be used to good purpose as there is an awful lot of market that can be served - and not just that of Mallorca and its tourists.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There's more land in Capdepera. Agricultural land that currently isn't doing anything. They're looking at re-cultivating it with the aims of selling produce to tourists and of creating employment in what is all but a lost agrarian tradition in the town.
The revitalisation of agriculture has become something of a theme bubbling under a wider discussion of the need for economic diversification. A back-to-the-future new agrarianism was spoken about in May this year when a gathering in Alaró, organised by the Camper footwear company, addressed the issue of diversification. It is one that plays well with an insular-nationalist Luddite tendency that would happily turn the clock back on tourism industrialisation.
But the worthies who met in Alaró were far from being cranks. Among their number was Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization who, following something of a farmyard line of thinking, asserted that Mallorca was living a fantasy in believing that tourism would return to being the "hen laying golden eggs". Hens laying real eggs is more like it.
The feasibility of the plan for the land in Capdepera will consider what might be grown there and what might be viable in terms of products for sale to tourists. It is a plan that makes sense. Mander is not the only one who recognises the pointlessness of much more development of a strictly tourist nature - hotels, for example. Alternative uses of land that might be contemplated are similarly either pointless, such as ever more unnecessary golf courses or industrial estates, or would be most unlikely to be sanctioned on environmental grounds - proper theme parks, for instance. So what do you do with it that might be productive, other than perhaps build houses, which would require endless arguments regarding land re-classification?
While the plan appears to make sense insofar as it would be an appropriate use of land, where it may founder is on economic grounds. The problem with the new agrarianism of Mallorca is finding markets for what, in all likelihood, would not be much greater than cottage industries. The wine industry in Mallorca is something of an indicator of this. While there is reasonable volume created by the bigger and older bodegas, the newer ones are much smaller; they are of a boutique nature. Volume is low, prices are high, export possibilities are limited.
The cautiousness which seems to surround the Capdepera scheme is correct. It is correct because the demand for what might be grown - among tourists - is most unlikely to be huge. Herbs, olives (for oil), vines (for wine), dried fruits. None of it sounds like it will amount to anything substantial. Tourists might buy the odd bottle of wine or oil, but they do so already. The focus on tourists may be strategically flawed.
I have to thank the excellent skybluemallorca.com for the following information regarding Mallorcan olive oil. It says that a mere 2.7% of total sales of oil is local. The rest goes abroad, with Germany being a key market. It is export, not through a tourist's bottle or two, but through bulk that is far more important. And not just to mature European markets.
I know of a move to export wine and olive oil to Hong Kong. This involves at least one of the main bodegas on the island. Supplying to the Chinese market could only ever be limited because of the constraints on volume in Mallorca, but this bigger thinking in terms of market should surely be more of a model for what might be envisaged in Capdepera and indeed elsewhere in Mallorca. High-quality product, not necessarily cheap but more exclusive, and marketed as such, for newly aspirational consumer markets, such as the Chinese.
There is though a further issue and it is one related to productivity and the use of technology. Advances there most certainly have been, but one of Mallorca's more important crops, almonds, has suffered because the local industry has lost competitiveness. In the same way as the wine producers of the Napa Valley in California took on the French wine industry by adopting more advanced technology, so California's almond growers have attacked the indigenous almond industry.
What all this suggests is that, just as there should be a more coherent tourism strategy so there also should be one for agriculture. Back to the future it might be, but there is still much to be said in its favour. With investments in technology and marketing, there might even be a bright future. The fear is that Capdepera would fall into the black hole of simply being too local and too narrow in its focus. It is a lot of a land, but only relatively speaking. But it can be used to good purpose as there is an awful lot of market that can be served - and not just that of Mallorca and its tourists.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 04, 2010
The 169 Position: Rationalisation of government companies
Call me clairvoyant, but the Balearic Government's rationalisation of its so-called "companies" is to bring about a merger between Inestur and IBATUR, two tourism agencies which have, since the former was established seven years ago, duplicated much effort. It is hardly public administration rocket science to appreciate that there is no point in having two agencies. A question should be, though, why there ever were two; why Inestur was ever formed. Its main purpose seems to have been as a conduit for siphoning off public funds into the coffers of the Unió Mallorquina party - allegedly.
The rationalisation affects at least a half of these companies, of which there are - get this - 169. What on earth are they all and what on earth do they all do? Add them into the various levels of government in Mallorca, and you complete the picture of the insanity of the public sector for an island with under a million people (or a couple of hundred thousand over a million, if you lump in the whole of the Balearics). But in announcing the rationalisation, President Antich has said that jobs are not to be affected. Why ever not? Simple. It would be politically unacceptable and would merely add to the unemployment burden. Were these "real" companies, however, with "real" shareholders, mergers would lead to job losses. What savings are truly going to be achieved by maintaining jobs that will still duplicate effort? The turf wars that will result from these mergers would be the stuff of dreams for a management researcher studying cultures in combined businesses; they are a recipe for unproductive behaviour and organisation.
There are all manner of suggestions and observations flying around as to this rationalisation process. "The Bulletin", commenting on the fact that the agriculture and fisheries ministry is to be swallowed up by the office of the presidency, asks why such a ministry is needed. Agriculture is far less important than it once was, but it still is important to Mallorca. Potato exports, almonds, wine, the traditional subsistence crops such as cabbage; they are hardly unimportant. And if one takes the words of those "gurus" from a few days back, agriculture should be something of the back to the future for the Mallorcan economy. No, there probably is a need for such a ministry, if, that is, one believes agriculture to be of strategic significance, like tourism.
Strategic. That is something missing in all this. A suggestion from the left-wing Bloc is that the tourism and transport ministries at government level should be scrapped and responsibilities handed over to the island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca. Why stop at these? Why not hand all ministries over to the councils and get rid of the regional government? It's the reverse take on my belief that it is the councils which should go, a move that would make a genuine saving in public spending.
It is the lack of strategic thinking that is worrying. The government is casting around, looking for anything it can to be the target of a short-term fix. Which is not to say that there isn't some sense to merging pointless agencies ("companies"). But the pressing need is for a thorough strategic review - from top to bottom - of the whole system of public administration, which is probably why it won't happen.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The rationalisation affects at least a half of these companies, of which there are - get this - 169. What on earth are they all and what on earth do they all do? Add them into the various levels of government in Mallorca, and you complete the picture of the insanity of the public sector for an island with under a million people (or a couple of hundred thousand over a million, if you lump in the whole of the Balearics). But in announcing the rationalisation, President Antich has said that jobs are not to be affected. Why ever not? Simple. It would be politically unacceptable and would merely add to the unemployment burden. Were these "real" companies, however, with "real" shareholders, mergers would lead to job losses. What savings are truly going to be achieved by maintaining jobs that will still duplicate effort? The turf wars that will result from these mergers would be the stuff of dreams for a management researcher studying cultures in combined businesses; they are a recipe for unproductive behaviour and organisation.
There are all manner of suggestions and observations flying around as to this rationalisation process. "The Bulletin", commenting on the fact that the agriculture and fisheries ministry is to be swallowed up by the office of the presidency, asks why such a ministry is needed. Agriculture is far less important than it once was, but it still is important to Mallorca. Potato exports, almonds, wine, the traditional subsistence crops such as cabbage; they are hardly unimportant. And if one takes the words of those "gurus" from a few days back, agriculture should be something of the back to the future for the Mallorcan economy. No, there probably is a need for such a ministry, if, that is, one believes agriculture to be of strategic significance, like tourism.
Strategic. That is something missing in all this. A suggestion from the left-wing Bloc is that the tourism and transport ministries at government level should be scrapped and responsibilities handed over to the island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca. Why stop at these? Why not hand all ministries over to the councils and get rid of the regional government? It's the reverse take on my belief that it is the councils which should go, a move that would make a genuine saving in public spending.
It is the lack of strategic thinking that is worrying. The government is casting around, looking for anything it can to be the target of a short-term fix. Which is not to say that there isn't some sense to merging pointless agencies ("companies"). But the pressing need is for a thorough strategic review - from top to bottom - of the whole system of public administration, which is probably why it won't happen.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Death Of The Hen: Diversification in Mallorca
"Mallorca vive una fantasía: el turismo no volverá a ser la gallina de los huevos de oro."
I wouldn't normally reproduce a newspaper headline, especially not one in Spanish, but this one deserves reproduction. If you do the native, then you'll understand. If you don't, you might get the drift. If the drift is not with you, then: "Mallorca is living a fantasy: tourism will not return to be the hen with golden eggs".
The headline came from the "Diario" two days ago. The words are those of Jerry Mander, a "guru" and the director of the International Globalization Forum. He, along with other worthies, gathered together in Alaró the other day, in a meeting organised by Camper, the Inca footwear company. As befits a coming together of those with sound credentials of a "sustainable" nature, there was a fair bit about sustainability, that mantra of current-day tourism. But the key message, the key conclusion was that the island's future lies in a diversification of its economy.
I should nominate myself as a guru. I couldn't tell you how many times I have referred to the need for economic diversification on this blog over the years. The Balearic Government, some while back, looked to set in motion a so-called innovation and development plan (largely forgotten about), but otherwise I have, and I don't wish to sound immodest, felt like a lone voice. You just never hear about economic diversification, or not in a way that addresses the subject seriously. Yet the need has been obvious for years.
Mallorca lives its fantasy because many of the people who live in Mallorca occupy a fantasy world - the absence of being in the real world, as I said two days ago. Perhaps it is something to do with the illusion or delusion of a "paradise island", lulling them into a false sense of security.
Mander's statement is, of course, inaccurate. Tourism hasn't gone away. But the implication is that it will not return on the scale that it once was. Moreover, it cannot be grown in any meaningful way; there just aren't the resources on a small area of land. It's that sustainability again, but this time in terms of the environment. Even if it were to be grown, more hotels, more golf courses, more this and more that, who would come?
Forty or more years ago, Mallorca set itself on a strategic path to economic transformation through tourism. Its old industries, agriculture most obviously, were shunted into the background. Those attending the Camper meeting seem to think that there is a need for some going back to the future. But is agriculture really a solution? It is one that smacks of the idyllic meeting the more wacky end of economics. It wouldn't represent diversification either. It has never gone away, just, in certain instances, such as almond-growing, been surpassed by superior technology and productivity elsewhere.
The general conclusion - that of diversification - is undeniably true, even if there might be disagreement as to the precise road-map for that diversification. What is staggering, though, is that the subject is even being discussed, as in being discussed now. It should have been on the table years ago.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I wouldn't normally reproduce a newspaper headline, especially not one in Spanish, but this one deserves reproduction. If you do the native, then you'll understand. If you don't, you might get the drift. If the drift is not with you, then: "Mallorca is living a fantasy: tourism will not return to be the hen with golden eggs".
The headline came from the "Diario" two days ago. The words are those of Jerry Mander, a "guru" and the director of the International Globalization Forum. He, along with other worthies, gathered together in Alaró the other day, in a meeting organised by Camper, the Inca footwear company. As befits a coming together of those with sound credentials of a "sustainable" nature, there was a fair bit about sustainability, that mantra of current-day tourism. But the key message, the key conclusion was that the island's future lies in a diversification of its economy.
I should nominate myself as a guru. I couldn't tell you how many times I have referred to the need for economic diversification on this blog over the years. The Balearic Government, some while back, looked to set in motion a so-called innovation and development plan (largely forgotten about), but otherwise I have, and I don't wish to sound immodest, felt like a lone voice. You just never hear about economic diversification, or not in a way that addresses the subject seriously. Yet the need has been obvious for years.
Mallorca lives its fantasy because many of the people who live in Mallorca occupy a fantasy world - the absence of being in the real world, as I said two days ago. Perhaps it is something to do with the illusion or delusion of a "paradise island", lulling them into a false sense of security.
Mander's statement is, of course, inaccurate. Tourism hasn't gone away. But the implication is that it will not return on the scale that it once was. Moreover, it cannot be grown in any meaningful way; there just aren't the resources on a small area of land. It's that sustainability again, but this time in terms of the environment. Even if it were to be grown, more hotels, more golf courses, more this and more that, who would come?
Forty or more years ago, Mallorca set itself on a strategic path to economic transformation through tourism. Its old industries, agriculture most obviously, were shunted into the background. Those attending the Camper meeting seem to think that there is a need for some going back to the future. But is agriculture really a solution? It is one that smacks of the idyllic meeting the more wacky end of economics. It wouldn't represent diversification either. It has never gone away, just, in certain instances, such as almond-growing, been surpassed by superior technology and productivity elsewhere.
The general conclusion - that of diversification - is undeniably true, even if there might be disagreement as to the precise road-map for that diversification. What is staggering, though, is that the subject is even being discussed, as in being discussed now. It should have been on the table years ago.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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