The Island Council of La Gomera and the Control Board of the Denomination of Origin Wines of La Gomera have agreed to promote, strengthen and consolidate wines of the island, explains the Council chairman Casimiro Curbelo, following the signing of a collaboration agreement promoted and funded by the insular corporation, in which the organizations agree to cooperate in the development of a quality plan.

Curbelo states that the objective is to conduct activities aimed firstly to ensure the production, distribution and marketing of wines, besides promoting institutional cooperation to define joint strategies to improve the island's position in the markets, as well as making the winegrowers and winemakers aware of the importance of establishing quality standards in the development and management of local production.

"The wine sector and winegrowers have great importance in the economic development of the island and, consequently, the Council is interested in participating and collaborating in a determined way with this sector, besides encouraging and promoting initiatives which ensure the quality and sale of our products", explains the highest insular representative.

"To develop and implement common goals through which the winegrower or winemaker can reach higher levels of development and differentiate their product, emphasizing their potential is another of the tasks we have set out to achieve", Curbelo says and then adds that the Council intends to encourage the maintenance of crops and thus contribute to the conservation and protection of the insular landscape, characterized by terraced land for agricultural work, including the viticulture.

"On La Gomera we have opted for a sustainable development model in which the primary sector plays a key role. Traditional activities of the island economy are a vital complement of tourism development, and within them viticulture is an area with great future, to which the Council aims to give all necessary support."

Curbelo refers also to the management of the Insular Winery which was assumed by the insular corporation since about two years ago, and to the modernization project and enhancement of the facilities, as well as to the promotional campaigns of Gomeran wines in international fairs such as the recently held Fitur or the upcoming Berlin Fair, and to the collaboration with the private sector to reach the German markets, and stresses that "now we want to go further, because what is involved is to optimize our resources to achieve greater efficiency and competitiveness of our products."

"The Council has a multi-year economic remittance of 48.000 euros that will enable us to start working in order to develop strategies and actions involving an improvement in the quality, promotion and marketing of our wines, and thus foster and strengthen the insular wine sector, according to the interests and demands of the producers", he says.

Curbelo states that La Gomera has 12 registered wineries and nearly 200 winemakers, and recalls that the most important production area is the northern region, particularly Vallehermoso, and clarifies that territorial scope of the convention is the island, the term being the current year, as for the next year it must be revised to conform to the interests of winemakers and winegrowers on the island.