Lorca backs broccoli in its Better With Broccoli campaign

The municipality of Lorca produces 35 per cent of all broccoli grown in Spain!

The local football team of La Hoya-Lorca even wore a broccoli strip a few years ago!

Whether you like it or loathe it, there is little room for doubt that broccoli is one of the heathiest vegetables available, and figures show that the expansive fertile farmland of Lorca makes the municipality one of the prime producers of the crop not only in the Region of Murcia but also in the whole of Spain.

In a marked change from the preferences of a generation ago, market surveys show that around 60 per cent of Spanish households are regular consumers of broccoli, and the Region of Murcia has become one of the main suppliers. This year has seen a bumper crop amounting to 21% more than in 2023, reaching 224,000 tons, grown on an area covering a total of 14,000 hectares (13.35 per cent more than last year).

As well as domestic markets, the Region also exports some 205,000 tons of broccoli at a total price of an amazing 316 million euros, accounting for 70 per cent of all Spain’s broccoli exports.

Of those 14,000 hectares more than 5,000 lie within Lorca, and they account for around half of all broccoli grown in Murcia. The main concentration is around La Hoya, where the local football team won a certain degree of fame a few years ago as the “Clockwork Broccoli” after a strip portraying the vegetable saw a change of luck that resulted in the side being promoted to the second division of the national league!

On the back of this agricultural success, the “+Brócoli” association, which was formed in 2010 to promote broccoli consumption, has launched an initiative called “Mejor con brócoli” (Better With Broccoli), aiming to create the use of the product in everyday dishes as a nutritious extra. The TV campaign features a 90-year-old grandmother who has moved into modern times and recommends simply boiling broccoli for 5 minutes as a tasty and healthy addition to any meal.

Meanwhile, over a million broccoli florets from Murcia are going on sale in supermarkets all over Spain, including supermarket chains such as El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, Lidl, Consum, Eroski and Aldi, and between now and the end of the month various activities and events are taking place to promote sales.

So get on board the Better with Broccoli campaign and support the vegetable farmers of Lorca!

Image 2: Twitter.com

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