The Era del Cardón dairy, managed by Luis Martel Perdomo, has received the award for the Best Cured Cheese of Gran Canaria at the recent competition. This local producer, situated in Lomo Padilla, in the Temisas neighborhood, uses raw milk from its own six hundred Majorera goats to make its cheeses. Its annual production is estimated at around 10,000 kilograms of semi-cured cheese, in addition to 1,700 kilos of tender cheese and 2,000 kilos of cured cheese.
Furthermore, Era del Cardón received a special mention from the other participating dairies. For its part, Arquegran Agüimes secured the second prize for the island's best semi-cured cheese, highlighting the quality of its products made from cow and goat milk.
Arquegran Agüimes, managed by Sergio Manuel Reyes Sánchez and located in the Montaña de Los Vélez neighborhood, also in Agüimes, uses milk from its forty Frison cows and forty Majorera goats. Its annual production averages about 26,000 kilos of tender cheese (with pasteurized milk), semi-cured, and cured cheese (with raw milk).
The Official Cheese Competition of Gran Canaria, organized by the Council's Department of Food Sovereignty, aims to promote local production and improve artisanal processes. The awards are granted through a blind tasting by experts and a special mention voted on by the producers themselves, thus recognizing the quality and value of the island's proximity products.
