Algarve Tropical

Haven’t we got everything in Portugal that we need to live well? Good soil, enough water, lots of sunshine, and if you’ve got a good idea, meaningful work. It is harvest time again. The big fruits are hanging like heavy Easter eggs on the delicate trees in a one-hectare greenhouse in Fuseta, Olhão. Every year, 59-year-old José Lourenço, who was born in Mozambique, harvests around 20 tonnes of mangoes with names like Austin, Kate and Irwin. He supplies the Apolónia supermarkets in Almancil and Galé, as well as the Nosolo Italian ice cream parlours, Vila Vita and the local markets. Along with mangoes, the fruit farmer also grows two types of avocados and, for his own consumption, some pineapples, litchis and bananas.

José Lourenço took ECO123 on a tour of the plantation with its almost 2,000 mango trees, which he tends according to integrative principles, i.e. he sprays as few chemicals as possible. He speaks of the natural sensitivity of his girls, which tolerate neither frost nor too much sun. Machamba da Ria is the name of his agricultural business, which is now in its ninth year, and he runs it with a partner. It is humid and the sweat pours down our foreheads. From August to October, Lourenço harvests mangoes every day, then avocados from February through to the summer, but in any case there’s always plenty to do: pruning, grafting and supporting trees, as well as analysing exactly what nourishment each tree needs to grow well. Despite the crisis, Machamba da Ria has found a niche and a firm place in the market in southern Portugal and nearby Andalusia.

About the author

Uwe Heitkamp, 53 years old, started working after university in daily newspapers and from 1984 on in public tv broadcasting companies such as WDR (Collogne), NDR (Hamburg), SDR (Stuttgart/Baden-Baden) in the ARD (first programme), wrote several books and directed the cinema movie about the anti nuclear movement in Germany in 1986 (Wackersdorf). After emigration in 1990 he founded 1995 the trilingual weekly printed newspaper “Algarve123” and later the online edition www.algarve123.com. Heitkamp lives for 25 year in Monchique, Portugal. He loves mountain hiking and swimming in streams and lakes, writes and tells stories of success from people and their sustainable relationship between ecology and economy. His actual film “Revolutionary Roads” tells the 60 minute story of a long walk crossing Portugal. 10 rural people paint a picture of their lives in the hills of the serra and the hinterland. The film captures profound impressions of natural beauty and human life. Along which path is the future of Portugal to be found? (subscribe to ECO123 und watch the documentary in the Mediatec)