I come from a rural family in the Axarquía area (Málaga), which is the southern region of Spain where tropical fruits are grown. My grandparents and great-grandparents were already farmers and since I was little I have grown up surrounded by nature, agricultural fields, orchards, fruit trees and crops. In my adolescence I had the opportunity to go to university, where I had to combine my studies in Industrial Technical Engineering with helping my father with agricultural tasks. At the end of my course I worked as an engineer for some years in different industries in the area. However, when I started my own family I decided to take an exciting step and follow in the footsteps of my father in order to be a great farmer. Engineering studies have helped me to have a different point of view than the traditional farmer. I think I have a greater focus on the efficiency of processes such as water use, plantation design or organization of agricultural work. Currently we are a team made up of several family members and workers where my work is the administration of the daily tasks of the farm which we all carry out according to needs. My accumulated experience in the cultivation of subtropical fruits constantly caused that acquaintances and friends with farms asked me for advice and help to optimize production on their farms. This is mainly due to the professional cultivation of tropical fruits such as mangos and avocados being relatively recent in Europe. In 2017, due to the high volume of requests, I decided to found GESTROPIC as a tool to be able to offer a better service to those who needed it. The main purpose of this company is to manage the “Refijo” and “Marroquino” family farms, as well as helping small farmers in the area to manage their tropical fruit farms. GESTROPIC also has an important focus on training farmers to pass on the acquired knowledge of good agricultural practices to them. This is achieved by periodically conducting courses and field days to teach them how to grow avocados and mangos in a sustainable and efficient way. Being able to send our fruits directly to each final consumer and thus being able to send top quality fresh fruit is what has led us to enter CrowdFarming. The success of a good quality in our farm is to distribute it as directly as possible to the final consumer.

The Finca Marroquino farm is located in a very particular enclave, within the municipality of Cútar. It's so called because it originally belonged to a person who lived in Morocco, who was known in the town as 'the Moroccan' (Marroquino in Spanish). It is situated on a mountainside with steep slopers: Even steeper than 100% (45º) in many parts. In the lower part of the finca the "Arroyo Pipí" stream runs through and is bordered by avocado trees up to the so-called "Peñones Gordos", which are gigantic gashes in the middle of the stream bed. From the stream if you look up you can see mountains on both sides and the peculiar "Peña de Hierro" just above. The fields of this farm were planted by my father about 20 years ago and they were extended about 3 years ago. We have adult and young avocados, as well as young mangos that soon begin to produce. They are all irrigated using modern drip irrigation systems from an irrigation community. Although we are still in the conversion phase our cultivation is already organic. For weed control, we use a manual procedure. We do not use pesticides and/or herbicides, favouring thereby the proliferation of beneficial insects for pest control, and consequently biodiversity. Besides, we reuse the irrigation water in order to avoid overexploiting the groundwater. My family and one or two helpers work actively on the farm, depending on the respective season and the requirements of the farm. The salary is in accordance with the collective agreement and includes contributions above the required levels. The specific tasks are distributed among the team members, although all of the workers are qualified to carry out all of the necessities of the farm such as pruning, grafting, watering, fertilizing, etc. Fruits that cannot be sold are destined for local markets. We also use them for jams and guacamole and they are consumed by family and friends, too. The avocados you'll receive are in their optimum state of ripeness. They are harvested minimizing the loss of quality caused by bruises or bad conservation. They are packed as homogeneously and quickly as possible based on the planning offered by CrowdFarming to avoid unnecessary preservation. The residue coming from pruning is used as organic matter on the farm and is composted directly benath each tree. Fruits in worse conditions are usually given to neighbors with livestock to feed their animals and thus avoid waste.