A new tourist route to celebrate the delicious oranges grown in and around Silves is being created by the town hall in a bid to bolster the local economy and tourism sector.
Entitled ‘Rota da Laranja’ (Orange Route), it will give visitors the opportunity to see where and how the fruit is grown, pick oranges directly from the trees and learn how to cook with them.
The initiative was unveiled at the town’s second Mostra Silves Capital da Laranja (Silves Capital of the Orange Show), which was held last weekend.
“The idea is that people will be able to experience the process of picking oranges and see how they are transformed and used in the kitchen,” explained Silves mayoress Rosa Palma.
The route is still “at an early stage” but could be completed by the end of the year, giving holidaymakers an alternative to the traditional “sun, sea and sand” tourism.
“We want to show that the Algarve, particularly Silves, has a very strong primary sector with great focus on the production of citrus fruits,” Rosa Palma said, adding that 90% of the oranges produced in the borough are exported to countries like France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The town hall is trying to integrate most local producers into the route, and many have already expressed an interest in participating in the initiative.
The route will also focus on two tourism niches which the council believes are valuable and could become even more so: motorhoming and accessible tourism.
Algarve tourism boss Desidério Silva has welcomed the idea, describing the town’s oranges as a fruit that “we must value and promote”.
“Just a few days ago we learned that the Algarve’s tourism numbers in 2017 were the best ever, with 19 million overnight stays and €1 billion in revenue,” he said, attributing part of the success to the increased focus on the inland Algarve and the efforts to bring more holidaymakers to the rural areas of the region.
Silves-born Vítor Neto, president of business association NERA, also spoke at the presentation of the route and told the crowd about how his great-grandfather used to travel to Lisbon to sell the oranges that he produced locally.
He added that the orange industry is “strategically important to the Algarve” and that “we must value the weight that agriculture has in the production of wealth”.
Oranges are the Algarve’s main agricultural crop. Around 70% of Portugal’s oranges are produced in the Algarve, while Silves accounts for around 60% of the fruit produced in the region.
Silves eyes Guinness record with huge “Torta de Laranja”
On the last day of Silves’ orange show (February 18), organisers handed out slices of a huge, 10-metre orange cake, or ‘torta de laranja’ in Portuguese.
It was the first time that this giant cake initiative took place in Silves and hopes are that next year the ‘torta’ will be big enough to earn it the title of the “Largest Torta de Laranja in the World” in the Guinness World Records.
By MICHAEL BRUXO michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
Photo: Silves mayoress Rosa Palma (right) and Encarnação Gonçalves from Quinta dos Avós (Algoz) cutting the “biggest orange cake in the world”
