The huerta in figures
Official data on the València huerta and l’Horta Nord. Every figure links to its source and carries its date. We only publish what we can check in the original source.
The huerta today
Spain’s statistics office (INE) publishes the Agricultural Census by agricultural district. The Huerta de Valencia district covers the whole of l’Horta, including the city of València; the census gives no separate figures for l’Horta Nord.
| Figure (2020) | Value |
|---|---|
| Farms | 4,670 |
| Utilised agricultural area | 16,819 ha |
| Citrus | 8,675 ha, on 3,412 farms |
| of which orange trees | 4,904 ha |
| of which small citrus (mandarin, clementine…) | 2,709 ha |
| Rice | 2,888 ha |
| Vegetables, melons and strawberries | 1,249 ha, on 627 farms |
| Potato | 306 ha, on 255 farms |
Source: INE, 2020 Agricultural Census, farms by agricultural district and INE, 2020 Agricultural Census, distribution of the UAA. Published 22 Mar 2023; accessed 15 Oct 2026.
Tiger nut with Protected Designation of Origin
The Chufa de Valencia PDO closed the 2025-2026 season with 5,150,000 kg of fresh tiger nut harvested on 339 ha. It is made up of 240 farmers, 3 washing plants, 24 traders and 48 horchata makers, and the crop is spread across 27 municipalities of the València huerta.
Source: Regulatory Council data reported by Pressdigital, 7 Jul 2026. The Regulatory Council website places the crop in twenty-seven villages of l’Horta Nord (accessed 15 Oct 2026).
Direct sales: the Tira de Contar
The Tira de Contar at Mercavalència is where huerta farmers sell what they grow directly. It occupies a 6,000 m² building inside a 200,000 m² site and opens Monday to Friday, 3:45 to 8:00 am.
Source: Valencia Plaza, 18 Nov 2022.
According to Mercavalència, 1,300 farmers sell their produce at the Tira de Contar, around 300 per session, selling between 30,000 and 40,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables.
Source: Mercavalència, La Tira de Contar. The page does not date these figures; accessed 15 Oct 2026.
In June 2023 València City Council abolished the four extraordinary street editions of the Tira de Contar (Figuereta, Benimaclet, Joaquim Benlloch and Martínez Ferrando), considering them unfair competition for the municipal markets.
Source: Valencia Plaza, 29 Jun 2023.
From field to table: farm-gate and retail prices
COAG’s Origin and Destination Price Index (IPOD) compares, every month, what producers are paid with what consumers pay. These are average prices for Spain, not only for the huerta.
| Product | Month | Farm gate (€/kg) | Retail (€/kg) | Times |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onion | September 2026 | 0.23 | 1.85 | 8.04 |
| Potato | September 2026 | 0.26 | 1.65 | 6.35 |
| Lemon | September 2026 | 0.50 | 3.41 | 6.82 |
| Orange | June 2026 | 0.41 | 2.04 | 4.98 |
Source: COAG, IPOD September 2026 (PDF published by UAGR) (published October 2026) and IPOD June 2026 (PDF published by UAGR). “Times”: how many times the farm-gate price is multiplied by the time it reaches the consumer. For citrus, the farm-gate price includes harvesting. Oranges do not appear in the July to September indices because they are out of season.
The huerta that is being lost
A study by geographer Víctor Soriano, based on aerial photographs from 1956, 1977, 1991 and 2011, estimates that the huerta of the València metropolitan area shrank from around 15,000 hectares to around 6,000.
Source: Horta Noticias, 3 Oct 2014. This is an academic study, not an official statistic.
How we read these data
- Each figure is copied exactly as its source gives it, without rounding.
- If a source changes or publishes newer data, we update this page and its date.
- If you spot an out-of-date figure or a better source, write to us in the chat.
Clear accounts: the indicators we use to measure the association’s work.