I do not envy those of New Zealand or kiwis in the Baztan and Bidasoa area
- It is many years that in some villages of Bertizarana and Malerreka the kiwis began to be part of the landscape. “I started producing kiwi fruit in 2000, but back then we sold to an outside company. We started our own project in 2008,” said producer Lander Sagaseta Vertiz. The project is Kibbi SAT, with his wife Maite Urroz Oyarzabal and his cousin Joseba Sarratea Oyarzabal. Instead of writing in W, they referred to the two letters B of Baztan and Bidasoa. He says with humor that they're the kibbis.
Sagaseta gives us some insights into the evolution of kiwi production in the Basque Country in recent years. In 1985, a company was set up in Lekaroz, which started making kiwi plantations in Navarre and some parts of Gipuzkoa. These products were sold to a large Galician company, but before 2008 it regressed and abandoned many plantations. “We also worked for them, and when they said they were going to leave the plantation, it was a great pity. They were not interested economically, but for us there was something else,” he says. They wanted to live in the same town and continue with that life, so they finally decided to move forward on their own.
In taking this leap, they also made another important decision: to move to the ecological one. “At first we started producing organically, because in the conventional market, small fruit is not properly valued. But in these years I have convinced myself that the ecological model is the most interesting way to produce, there is a benefit in the soil and in the trees,” he explained. They work without nitrogen fertilizers or herbicides, but without problems, as kiwis hardly suffer from pests or diseases. About eight people work in Kibbin, but at the time of fruit harvesting they become twenty.
Suitable environment for kiwi production
Kiwi needs cold winters and moisture in summer, so the areas of Baztan, Bidasoa and Malerreka are climatologically appropriate. In Doneztebe, Narbarte and Sunbilla have 16 hectares of kiwi planted. Being a generous production, although much is sold in nearby stores, they are also sold abroad via wholesale traders. “We try to channel most of it into the organic market, even here in the small shops in the area, in boxes of 10 kilos. That is, as far as possible we want to have a direct relationship with customers,” he says.
Recently the possibility of buying from your website has been enabled. They sell boxes of 5 kilos and send them by parcel. “We also participate in Navarre networks such as Ekoalde or the Association of Organic Farming Companies of Navarra,” he adds. The production of kiwi fruit is completed with the production of cider apples for sale to various organic steelworks in the Basque Country.
