Jenifer Santos Cabrera’s organic artisan cheese factory has been recognized with the Agrojoven Award for the best business initiative. These awards, organized by the Cabildo de Tenerifeaim to promote the professionalization and participation of young people in the development of the primary sector to contribute to the generational change.
The second prize went to Antonio Díaz Álvarez, for his Malpaís Hot Sauce project, a registered trademark that produces one hundred percent handmade hot sauces, seasonings, and jams; while the third has been awarded to David Jesús Cabrera, for his company producing, distributing and marketing organic red fruits in the municipality of Fasnia.
The Island Councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, highlighted the capacity, dedication and commitment of the new generations of entrepreneurs in the agricultural and livestock sector, “increasingly prepared, trained and aware of the importance of protecting our landscapes and be respectful of the environment”.
In this sense, he valued the work of Jenifer Cabrera “and her documentation, training and learning work over the last six years, as well as her commitment to recovery and reforestation of abandoned rural areas.”
For her part, Jenifer Santos Cabrera assured that this award represents important support to continue with the cheese factory: “I thank the Cabildo de Tenerife for supporting this project, which I have been working on for more than six years and which shows that organic farming is possible and profitable in Tenerife”.
Jenifer Santos Cabrera also wanted to remember that what is now called ‘ecological production’ “is nothing more than what our grandfathers and grandmothers did 40 or 50 years ago”, for which reason she encouraged other farmers on the island join and choose to implement this system, which contributes to a more sustainable management of the territory.
In the best business idea modality (which are those projects that have not yet been launched) the first prize went to Celia Martínez Navarro for a fodder self-sufficiency project to reactivate livestock activity in Güímar; while the second prize has recognized the organic farm La Caléndula, owned by Pedro Pablo Gil, an initiative that focuses on the cultivation of edible flowers and tender shoots.
JENIFER SANTOS CABRERA
The cattle farm of this entrepreneur is located in a protected area in the highlands of the municipality of Arafo and houses a hundred head of goats. After having been off the island for almost 10 years and becoming aware that other forms of livestock farming are possible, Cabrera returned to Tenerife with the aim of implementing small-scale production.. In his artisanal cheese factory, located on the farm itself, he makes fresh and smoked organic cheeses.
It is a farm dedicated exclusively to dairy production (without meat use) that is committed to the revaluation of abandoned rural areas and sustainable management of the territory. The farm also has an electricity system with one hundred percent renewable energy and pasture areas that it has been recovering in the last four years. In the medium term, Cabrera also contemplates holding educational workshops and visits to the farm.
ANTONIO DIAZ ALVAREZ AND DAVID JESUS CABRERA
Antonio Díaz Álvarez is the promoter of the Malpaís Hot Sauce brand, which makes hot sauces, seasonings and jams one hundred percent handmade. The company has 8 types of sauces, from the least spicy and sweet, made with home-grown mangoes or tropical pineapple from El Hierro, to the most extreme, made with the chilies that hold the Guinness Record for the hottest chilies in the world.
David Jesús Cabrera, an agricultural technical engineer, has launched a company for the production, distribution and marketing of red fruits, mainly red raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. The management, in addition to the work, is carried out in an ecological way through biodynamic agriculture.
In the future, the secondary or complementary production of this company will focus on oranges, lemons, guavas and prunus (peach, apricot, plum or nectarine). Likewise, it will promote the implementation of other red fruits such as currants, blueberries or cherries.
