In Vicente Peris we are children of the orchard, specifically of the Huerta de Valencia, a unique space that surrounds the city and that, in good part, still maintains the cultivation activity.
Vicente Peris, the founder of our house, the grandfather, was born in Cúiper, a district located in the heart of Horta Nord. He did so in a family of farmers who worked the land for a great lord, along with many other families in the same situation. Eventually, these workers were able to acquire the land in property. And it was there where the family business of production and marketing of the famous Rochet melon, native to the area, which even in Madrid came to be known as Melón de Cúiper, began. After melon came watermelon and after watermelon, many other crops. A relentless work that has reached the present day with the third generation Peris at the helm of the fruit and vegetable production and marketing company.
Our dynamism, the diversity of our product portfolio, the volume of production we handle and the high quality that defines us have marked our relationship with this special environment. At present, we have moved our melon and watermelon crops to other areas that ensure higher quality and productivity. Quality, due to the particularities of the land or the necessary periods of rest that it needs, and productivity, due to the volume of hectares at our disposal, since the Huerta de Valencia is made up of patches of small orchards that limit extensive cultivation.
Currently, we grow spring onions, white celery and peanut squash from traditional varieties and crops on a number of hectares in different areas of Horta Nord. We do this in our own fields, and we also work in collaboration with different farmers who follow our cultivation guidelines. We maintain a permanent relationship with them that we renew season by season.
From the Romans, with whom this cultivation area was born, to the present day, the Huerta de Valencia has lived through many phases. Its most glorious period was during the rule of the Arabs, who introduced new crops, applied innovative work techniques and designed the network of irrigation ditches, which bring water from the Turia River and which is preserved to this day.
There have been darker periods, and we have one very recent one, when urban pressure turned a good part of its extension into cement. At present, the Huerta is regaining its rightful place, although there are still challenges to be faced. One of them is the need for generational change. Another is the joining of small plots of land that provide the option of generating a crop that is productive for companies that require a minimum volume, which is the only way to be competitive in a sector as complex and with such low margins as agriculture. The positive thing is that, at least, society values the richness of having at the gates of the city a unique heritage and natural area in the world, declared World Agricultural Heritage by the FAO in 2019 .
Born here, mark. Living from this land, too. At Vicente Peris we are part of a unique landscape that we continue to endow with life with our daily activity, because in addition to the cultivation areas, our main production plant is also in the middle of the Huerta. We will continue here, at the foot of the field, because we belong to this land. And let us say, we are very proud of it.
Installations of Vicente Peris, Foios, Valencia