Tomato
From vine tomatoes to ribbed fruit, the tomato shapes Almería's huerta. Under the diffuse light of the greenhouses, sand-mulched soil, drip irrigation and sometimes salinity produce very different profiles — from cherry to Raf de Níjar.
The tomato is one of the great landmarks of Almería's huerta — and one of its founders: it was among the three first crops grown in the province's first greenhouse, built in Roquetas de Mar in 1963. For the 2024/2025 season, the Andalusian Observatory credits it with 8,158 hectares of protected cultivation and some 750,000 tonnes, across categories running from vine tomatoes to smooth, cherry, pera, round, ribbed and cocktail types.
The landscape that produces it is one of parral-type greenhouses, often run in the local «raspa y amagado» way: low framework, natural ventilation, plants trellised vertically and sand-mulched soil with the drip lines in plain sight. In the area of the La Cañada PGI — which spans the Campo de Níjar and the Bajo Andarax and administratively includes Alhama de Almería — saline soils and water are part of the recognised growing conditions. The PGI distinguishes four main types (smooth round, ribbed, oblong and cherry) and should not be automatically equated with the Raf name alone.
About the Raf de Níjar, grown along that same strip where salinity concentrates flavour, one frequent misunderstanding deserves clearing up: RAF stands for "Resistente Al Fusarium", the fungus this traditional selection naturally survived. "Tiger tomato" is only a later nickname, earned by its ridged green shoulders.
Varieties
- On the vine
- Cherry and cherry pera
- Raf de Níjar
- Pera
- Beef / ribbed
- Kumato
- Oxheart
- Rosa
Season
A protected crop shaped by its terroir
In Almería's greenhouses the tomato is trellised above sand-mulched soil and fed drip by drip. In the La Cañada area, the natural salinity of soil and water is part of the terroir described by the PGI: it cannot be reduced to inducing water stress at will.
