Almond cultivation in the Algarve: historical notes 2

The economic importance of Algarve almonds, which was already notable in the 16th century (see previous issue of this monthly), gained further growth in the 17th century, becoming one of the main export products, along with figs, carobs, olive oil and oranges.

For Flanders and other traditional markets in Northern Europe, shipments of almonds (coca and hard) that merchants ordered in Loulé, Albufeira, Tavira regularly left the ports of Faro and Tavira (Joaquim Romero de Magalhães, The Economic Algarve 1600-1773, pp. 172, 259, 281). Production and export in the Silves and Lagos areas is poorly documented, it is known that dried fruits from these municipalities were transported through the ports of Vila Nova de Portimão and Lagos.

In the middle of the 18th century (1759), the magistrate of the Algarve District, Sebastião Xavier de Gama Lobo, criticized, in excessive tones, the poor use of almonds and other riches of the Kingdom of the Algarve: Despite all these types of means to earn a living and acquire great wealth, due to the innate idleness of its inhabitants and punishment for their vices, it is a poor and miserable kingdom, where there is no other industry than robbing its sovereign. (Romero de Magalhães, op. cit., P. 281).An assessment that denotes a stereotypical view of the people of the Algarve, in an abusive generalization.

In the 19th century, almonds continued to be exported in abundance, both in shell and kernels, to Lisbon and abroad. In 1836, 13,952 bushels of almonds in shell (durázia and bird’s beak) and 6,247 arrobas of almonds in kernels (coconut and molar) were exported (cf. Silva Lopes, Chorography or Statistical Memory, 1872, p. 147). The bitter variety was already used to make liqueurs and sweets (previously tanned in water).

Around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, several varieties of the Durázia type were introduced (ludo, ferragudo, casta boa, José Dias), which were less sensitive to frost (Maria Carlos Radich, The Agricultural Algarve, 2007, p. 75). They were sold packed in palm baskets and authors of the time (Leotte, 1901, Barbosa y Pego, 1901) state that farmers and traders deceived each other in order to pass off the shell as the kernel and in commerce they mixed the various qualities (Radich, op. cit., p. 76).

The table below shows the increase in exports (annual averages over the five-year period):

(José Manuel Soares, Fruits and Vegetables in the Algarve Economy, 1965, p. 23)

In the 1950s and 1960s, it was estimated that there were around 4.2 million almond trees in the Algarve, with an average annual production of 10,000 tons, to which the majority of clusters in Loulé (with Albufeira, Alportel, Faro and Olhão) – 50%, and Silves (with Lagoa) – 25%. During this period and until the beginning of the 70s, the largest exporter in the region was the company Teófilo Fontaínhas Neto, from S. Bartolomeu de Messines, which had created, in 1949, its own brand, “Vieira”, for the export of almonds.

From the 1970s onwards, there was an accelerated decline in Algarve almond production. In 1973, only 5 thousand tons of crumbs were produced, and in 1980, production was reduced to 2 thousand tons.

Competition from California almonds, the replacement of almond orchards by citrus orchards, among other factors, led to a progressive abandonment of almond groves in the Algarve:

1990 -16,383 ha.; 2000 -13 713ha.; 2011 – 7502 ha.; 2020 – 5013 ha.; 2022 – 5001 ha.

In recent years, some irrigated and intensively cultivated orchards have emerged (e.g. Messines, Cacela), with varieties of almond trees that are more resistant to frost and which have somewhat mitigated the tendency for abandonment, but without good prospects being envisaged, given the lack of water in the region and the lack of competition with irrigated almond fields in the Alentejo, which, according to experts, are producing 10 times more than those in the Algarve.

Unless solutions are found to enhance Algarve almond trees and almonds (currently, more than a hundred varieties are registered), we will be left with evoking fond memories:

Almond trees are found everywhere, more or less, but the most beautiful almond groves belong to the Algarve, like the carob trees. Since the almond tree in this province blooms in January, the flowering creates a very pleasant natural scene: the trees, moved by the weather, look like dancing fairies, wearing light clothes. Due to its rarity, it attracts many foreigners to the extreme south, eager for enjoyment. If the flowering is beautiful, the fruit is fruitful, and there are many qualities of almond: coconut, molar (with a soft shell), durazia (the opposite), beautiful (in the same way, with a hard shell), bird (with the shell ends in a beak, on both sides, similar to that of a bird), of good variety (large almond with two kernels), bitter. The flower has some differences in terms of colors: the coconut almond is pink, the bird’s is flesh-colored; the other almond trees are white. (Vasconcelos Milk, Portuguese Ethnography, vol. II, 1st ed. 1936, reed. 1980, p. 70).