Family Cal Valls - Cal Valls

Pioneers in organic agriculture

We were pioneers in organic agriculture and food in Catalonia and Spain back in 1978. But the history of Cal Valls really begins much earlier. It goes back to our grandfather, Manuel Valls Sanfeliu, a naturist convinced of the direct influence of a healthy diet on people's health. This is the philosophy of life that we have inherited, in which we continue to believe and which has been the seed on which we were born as a company.

1940
The seed of this project

Our grandfather, Manuel Valls Sanfeliu, born in 1922 in Vilanova de Bellpuig, discovered at a very young age that vegetarianism was a way of combating the health issues he suffered from. Once he recovered, he began to take a deeper interest in naturist philosophy and healthy eating habits and passed it on to his family.
1978
Blooming against the side

Our father, Manuel Valls Felip, born in 1945, was the one who, as a child, looked after the vegetable garden at home and later continued to grow the few family lands. At the end of the 1970s, opposed to the growing use of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides and faithful to his father's teachings, he travelled to France to learn at first hand the techniques of the so-called Agriculture Biologique, which he would end up applying to his own land. An agriculture that would later become certified organic agriculture, as we know it today.
1980
Cultivating tradition

Converting our fruit trees to organic was complicated, so we opted to grow vegetables.

Given that in the 1980s the consumption of organic food was very low and that the extreme climate of the Plana de Lleida did not allow for year-round production, we redirected the fresh produce towards the production of preserves. We already had a certain amount of experience with those we made for our own consumption, like many other "cases de pagès" (Catalan farmers houses).

We modernized and had to adapt our facilities for this new stage, always maintaining the spirit of the artisan produce that still characterizes our preserves today.
1989
Taking root

In 1989, our father received the first organic registration in Spain as a farmer and Cal Valls received the second one as a company, when the first Regulation of the Generic Denomination "Organic Agriculture" and its Regulatory Council were approved.

A few years later, competences were transferred to the autonomous governments; in the case of Catalonia, to the CCPAE (Consell Català de Producció Agrària i Ecològica).
1990
Biodynamic agriculture

In the 1990s, we began to incorporate the biodynamic agriculture techniques in our fields and obtained the international Demeter seal, the certification that certifies this type of agriculture, the products issued from these crops and the transformation process.

At that time, we started exporting to Germany, where biodynamic was recognized, and then to other countries inside and outside the EU, such as France and the United States.

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2000
The fruit of family farming

At the beginning of 2000, Manuel and Rosa's three children (Dani, Rubén and Maria) joined the Cal Valls project. With our incorporation, we began to focus on diversifying production and gave a boost to marketing, both locally and abroad.
Currently

The Cal Valls family

We are more than 50 people who currently make up the most important value of this house, divided between the office, the warehouse, logistics, processing and those who work in the more than 70 hectares of organic and biodynamic crops.

Thanks to all of them, we can continue to promote the healthy eating habits that we inherited from our grandfather Manuel, through this family project called Cal Valls.

Current photo of Manuel Valls with one of his grandchildren in one of the biodynamic agriculture fields in La Plana d’Urgell.