Around 7,000 people attended the XXVI Día del Níspero in Sayalonga on Sunday with plenty of entertainment on offer as well as 2,000 kilos of fruit and copious amounts of local wine.
Around 80 per cent of the 1,500 inhabitants of Sayalonga are involved in fruit production and the town has become one of the major producers of the níspero (medlar/loquat) in Andalucia along with Jete and Otívar in Granada province.
The fruit originated in Asia and was introduced into Andalucia in the early 1980’s to replace other more traditional crops such as peaches and lemons. The microclimate of Sayalonga gives the fruit slightly different characteristics to those produced in Asia or California.