Spain: Almeria prepares for the 2nd Tomato Day

Coming Saturday, 13th February, “Tomato Day” will be held in Almería’s town square, Plaza Vieja, after last year’s event attracted huge numbers of participants and spectators, Now in its second year, Tomato Day is becoming consolidated as an annual celebration of Almería’s primary agricultural product. The province of Almería leads tomato production with more than one thousand million kilos harvested each season.

The day is organised by the fruit and vegetable sector supported by local media, such as La Voz de Almería and Cadena Ser. The City Council of Almería, the Provincial Council and Cajamar sponsor this event. The main tomato trading companies in the province all participate: ‘Casi’, ‘Única Group’, ‘Vicasol’, ‘Coprohníjar’, ‘Agroponiente’, ‘Vegacañada’, ‘Hortamar’, ‘Agrupaalmería’, ‘Tabo Export’, ‘La Unión’ and ‘Caparrós Nature’. These companies provide attendees with thousands of kilos of tomatoes. The tomatoes are packed into bags and participants are charged a token price of one Euro per bag. All the money raised through these sales is donated to the Red Cross.

Tomato Day begins at 10:30 a.m when attendees eat a healthy breakfast and an appetizer, whose main ingredients are, of course, the tomato. The breakfast menu is sliced bread with tomato and olive oil, from the Almazara de Canjáyar, alongside tomato juice, from Biosabor. The appetizer is bread with crushed tomato from the company Primaflor. These meals are priced at one Euro. The money collected from both menus will be go to ANDA, (Association For Children With Disability in Almería) and the Red Cross.

Among the planned activities there will be concerts and musical shows for children. There is an exhibition about the tomato, demonstrating the production cycle from sowing seeds until the product is put on the market, as well samples of the different varieties of tomato produced in Almería.

The Provincial Association of Hotel Industry Businessmen (ASHAL) is also supporting the event. Five bars in the centre of Almería will prepare appetizers for the day whose main ingredient will be the tomato. The restaurant ‘Saboreo’ will prepare a “Cod crocanti and Raf tomato jam”, the bar “Taberna Nuevo Torreluz’ will prepare a traditional salmorejo (a tomato and bread puree), the bar ‘Taberna Nuestra Tierra’ will include ‘tomato tartar with kipper’ among its appetizers, the bar ‘Bella Ciao’ will offer its clients a “Mediterranean tartar” and the bar Rayuela will prepare a “two-coloured salmorejo”.

During the whole morning raffles will be held, in addition to tomato and olive oil and many surprises for the attendees.

La Voz de Almería will broadcast the whole event live on the internet.