Homegrown: How local produce can pave the way to greater prosperity

By Jean Paul Lugaro

Last month, like we do every Christmas, my family and I were busy making homemade gifts with local produce from our garden. This year we made jars of strawberry jam, from homegrown organic strawberries, limoncello with lemons from our tree, ‘atún en manteca’ with tuna fished in the straits by local fishermen and mulberry coulis (which is really mulberry jam gone wrong) from the mulberry tree just outside our house. All that’s left is orange marmalade and lemon curd with the leftovers to avoid waste.

You see, my family and I are fortunate enough to live up the rock and have our own small garden. Over the past few years I have taken on gardening on a trial and error basis. More error than trial but still an exciting hobby nonetheless. In that time I have grown tomatoes in the summer months, onions and also have orange trees, a couple of apple trees that are still young and bare small fruit, two fig trees and two avocado trees. My latest attempt is to grow white aubergines where I've had some success.

My point however isn’t that we should all take up a new hobby, it’s that if I can produce this in a small garden, how much more could we as Gibraltarians be doing with our unique and untapped natural environment.

For a long time now our economy has focused on either construction (including my own work as a developer) or on extracting what we can from foreign markets. While this has brought Gibraltar a long way, I believe we should never be complacent about other economic possibilities. Especially those with so much potential and so tightly woven into our homeland.

While Gibraltar may never have the scale for mass production, we do have all the traits needed for making unique artisanal products that can greatly contribute to our prestige and economic repertoire. Local crops could be sold in local shops either whole or as locally made compote or jam. This in turn supports our restaurant’s ability to serve something different, worth the higher price tag compared to their counterparts across the border.

Tourists could experience tastings right at the source, and families can “pick their own” figs or mulberries to create memories that last a lifetime, and encourage second visits.
Tourism and all its secondary and tertiary products can be the main pillar of our economy.

As important as the money it can provide is that it could be a sustainable, lucrative and fulfilling industry that provides job opportunities for passionate locals. In turn this can convince tourists to spend more and spend longer in Gibraltar. This benefits us too, promoting our rich national cuisine that goes much further than calentita and giving us more reason to spend our hard-earned money in the local economy.

There are of course challenges, from rock falls to protecting our unique flora and fauna from overexploitation. But as the saying goes: “Querer es poder.” Haven't we all seen the videos on social media of very inaccessible areas in South America or Asia where the locals themselves have built bridges, rope steps etc to get to and fro? Surely by comparison this should be a walk in the park.

I will keep beating this drum in the hope that once and for all our upper rock will get the attention it deserves. If not, I hope that in four years’ time the people of Gibraltar will give Together Gibraltar the opportunity to steer this ship in the right, and only direction that we have to provide a long term, sustainable vision and nation that our children and grandchildren can grow up in, live comfortably and happily, and be proud of.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in our beautiful nation what will hopefully be a prosperous new year.

Jean Paul Lugaro is an executive member of Together Gibraltar and their spokesperson on tourism. He holds a degree in tourism and has worked in development and real estate for over 15 years.