After the scorching summer for crops, hope for aloe vera in the Pyrénées-Orientales and Aude

2023-09-08 07:30:37

In the intense heat of this end of summer, Thomas Montès, 25, is in the oven and mill of his small aloe vera farm. He must deliver sprays to pharmacies in the Perpignan region after having harvested and then packaged the natural gel in his workshop installed in the old bakery in Vingrau (Pyrénées-Orientales).

“Our workshop obtained its health approval last June. This is the cornerstone of our developing sector. This is what allows us to promote our production in a short circuit,” explains Thomas Montès, a visionary aloe farmer who started with a small personal production in 2017. After a year of research, the product, gel from the leaves, is stabilized. Its healing properties are recognized, including by oncology doctors and pharmacists.

When used externally, the gel is healing and the plant is easy to live with in a Mediterranean climate. Only severe frost episodes are feared but multiple possibilities exist to ensure effective protection during the very accidental polar nights of the Catalan country.

“We need to develop the sector, make it grow without haste at a controlled pace. Several farmers want to carry out the first plantings this year. We hope to ensure a minimum income of 2 euros per kilo for the producer,” continues Thomas, founder with his colleague from Aude Laurent Maynadier of the Aloe d’Oc association, intended to develop this new crop in the territories of the two departments of the Pyrénées-Orientales. and Aude.

Plots to replant

“We can estimate to date that around ten farmers are embarking on this promising diversification. Promising, it will be if the growth of this cultivation is controlled, from planting in the fields to delivery of the finished product to pharmacies or via the Internet”, predicts Laurent Maynadier who multiplies the experiments in his different plots of Fitou on the borders of Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales.

This opportunity comes at just the right time at the dark hour of the worst yields ever recorded in the vines thirsty and roasted by the scorching days of sunshine this summer. “We harvest around 25% of the potential,” laments Laurent Maynadier, also a pioneer in aloe vera.

Catalan arboriculture will emerge from this sequence with entire plots to be replanted after the shortage of irrigation which has dried up thousands of apricot trees, particularly in the lower Agly valley. “Until then, vines brought in 80 cents per kilo, apricots €1.85 in good times. With a price paid above 2 euros for aloe vera, we can estimate that this new crop, which ultimately requires little care and no treatment, is attractive” adds Thomas Montes, young pioneer in this great adventure.