Sustainability
Measured, published, and honest about the gaps
Farming in a region that is getting hotter and drier means the environmental question and the commercial question are the same question. Here is what we measure, what has improved, and what has not.
- Certification
- GLOBALG.A.P.
- Organic area
- 62 ha
- Baseline year
- 2019
- Less water per tonne of produce than 2019
- 31%Less water per tonne of produce than 2019
- Average soil organic matter, up from 1.6%
- 2.4%Average soil organic matter, up from 1.6%
- Montado and field margins left uncultivated
- 640 haMontado and field margins left uncultivated
- Of estate electricity from on-site solar
- 78%Of estate electricity from on-site solar
Water
The Alentejo does not have spare water
Alqueva changed what is possible here, and it also changed what is responsible. Having access to irrigation is not a reason to irrigate everything. Around two-thirds of our cereal area is deliberately dry-farmed, because the yield gain from watering it would not justify the draw.
Where we do irrigate, scheduling is driven by capacitance probes at two depths and daily reference evapotranspiration, not by a calendar. Filtration stations are serviced on a planned cycle so pressure loss is caught before it becomes over-application. Volumes are logged per block and reviewed monthly against the seasonal budget.
- Deficit irrigation on hedgerow olive during pit hardening
- Soil moisture probes at 30 cm and 60 cm on every irrigated block
- Night irrigation windows to cut evaporation loss
Soil
Building organic matter on ground that has very little
Alentejo soils are thin, low in organic matter and easy to lose. Our 1998 baseline samples averaged 1.6% organic matter; the 2025 round averaged 2.4%. That took twenty-seven years of cover cropping, minimum tillage and putting compost back.
Olive pomace and prunings are composted on site and returned to the parcels the analysis says need them. Grove alleys carry a sown cover of vetch and oats through winter, terminated by rolling rather than spraying. Cereal blocks run a four-year rotation with a legume break and are direct-drilled wherever the ground allows.
- Grid sampling to 30 cm on a three-year cycle
- Winter cover crops in all grove alleys
- Olive pomace composted and returned to the parcel
Biodiversity
Montado is not wasted land
Six hundred and forty hectares across the network are cork oak and holm oak montado, field margins and watercourse buffers that we do not cultivate. In a district where intensification has taken a great deal of that habitat, keeping it is a decision with a cost attached, and we have taken it.
Great bustard and lesser kestrel both use our cereal ground. We delay margin cutting until after fledging on the parcels where they nest, and we have not used a neonicotinoid seed treatment anywhere on the network since 2018. Sixty hives from two local beekeepers sit on our margins under a standing arrangement.
- No neonicotinoid seed treatments since 2018
- Delayed margin cutting on ground-nesting bird parcels
- Pheromone traps and thresholds before any olive fly spray
Where we still fall short
The parts we have not solved
Diesel in the harvest fleet
Our tractors and combines still run on diesel and will for some years. Electric machinery at this scale is not yet a working proposition on Alentejo terrain. We have cut fuel per hectare by 14% through route planning and direct drilling, which is real but modest, and we are not going to describe it as anything more.
Packaging on the produce side
Fresh-market produce still moves in a mix of returnable and single-use packaging because buyers specify it. We are moving customers onto pooled crates where they will accept it — currently about half our fresh volume.
Water in a drier decade
Our efficiency per tonne has improved substantially, but total abstraction has risen with the irrigated area. Our commitment for the current planning cycle is that irrigated area does not grow beyond its 2025 footprint, whatever the market does.
Trade enquiries
Tell us what you need and when you need it
Send us the crop, the volume and the delivery window. If we can grow it well here we will say so, and if we cannot we will tell you that too — usually within two working days.