TRADITOM and I3 Elements alliance to reach out to traditional farmers and chefs with quality tomatoes
This summer, a set of 100 selected traditional tomato varieties within GOURMETOM, a subset of TRADITOM representing attractive tomatoes with colours/shapes of interest for restaurants and chefs (preselected between CSIC and Alicia Foundation Interaction) are being cultivated in a plot of land recovered for horticultural farming near Castellón Valencia (see map).
Hector Molina, CEO of el3ments and associated partner to TRADITOM, is developing a plan to recover cultivated land which formerly had served as citrus groves in order to turn it into horticultural land. The joint strategy of el3ments with CSIC is to use this GOUREMTOM set of varieties (see list and characteristics on our web page) to show a selected group of local farmers the variability present in TRADITOM and their potential interest for farmers willing to cultivate them in order to supplying high quality traditional products (e.g.to local restaurants). A meeting with farmers is currently being organized for September 15, 2017 at a farm house near the plot that el3ments has been refurbishing during the last few years. A detailed program for this activity will follow soon.
In addition, el3ments has just signed a contract with MAKRO (a supermarket chain specialized in supplying restaurants) to provide them with traditional high value horticultural crops including tomatoes. The meeting on September 15 between farmers, el3ments and CSIC members of TRADITOM is aimed to produce a selection of TRADITOM varieties that present the best characteristics for both farmers and final users (e.g. Restaurants). A distribution of tomatoes from the GOURMETOM collection is also scheduled for September for the chefs in the Castellón coastline area and other quality shops. This initiative fits nicely in the outreach activities and impacts planned within TRADITOM.
