as the trees were laden with large
cherries this year. Production will
be limited to 300,000 kilos, far
from the 1.2 million kilos recorded
in 2016. There are still hopes that
the late cherries varieties will
provide a good crop.
Benitatxell promotes itself in
a Dutch cycling magazine
Benitatxell’s
Councillor
for
Communication, Myra van ‘t
Hoff has been busy promoting
the village as a sports tourist
destination. This has borne fruit
in that there was a four centre page
spread about the municipality
and the Puig Llorenca in the
Dutch magazine “Cycling Live”.
The Netherlands has a huge cycle
following and Dutch cyclist, Tom
Dumoulin, won the first stage of
the Vuelta on the Puig Llorenca
in 2015, and this peak will feature
again as the end of a stage in the
2017 Vuelta on August 27th.
The danger of depopulation
in the Marina Alta interior
Over the last 20 years the
population of the whole region has
grown from 127,977 inhabitants
to 169,831.
However, in the interior there
has been a decline in population.
e.g. Castells de Castells (from
499 to 449 inhabitants), Vall
d’Alcalà (from 186 1 171), Vall de
Gallinera (from 682 to 582), Vall
de Laguar 918 to 801) and the Vall
d’Ebo (from 343 to 243). (Castell
de Castells and Vall d’Ebo) are
threatened with disappearance
according to a report prepared by
the Generalitat, which describes
72 municipalities under threat in
the Valencian region.
The
regional
Government
is therefore thinking of a
program ( la Agenda Valenciana
Antidespoblament (Avant) to
counteract this problem. From:La
Marina Plaza.