Tenerife Mushroom Farm Wins Top Agrojoven 2025 Award

A mushroom farm in southern Tenerife has won big at the Agrojoven 2025 Awards. These awards, run by the Tenerife Island Council's Department of Primary Sector and led by Valentín González, aim to celebrate young people's business ideas in rural areas and encourage new generations to join the farming industry.

In the 'Business Initiative' category, the top prize went to Setas La Bruja. This mushroom farm, run by Florencia Fernandes Nicoletti, grows its produce in an old jable (volcanic sand) extraction site in Granadilla de Abona.

Second place went to Quesería Ayojo, a cheese dairy founded by brothers Joel and Ayoze González Hernández from Benijos, La Orotava. These young farmers are carrying on their family's tradition of goat farming by starting their own joint business.

Third prize was awarded to Finca Ecológica La Guirrera, a project by Rafael Tarife Delgado. This farm focuses on growing, preparing, transporting, and directly selling organic vegetables from greenhouses in southern Tenerife.

For the 'Business Idea' category, four projects were recognized: 'La Zafra,' by Alba Rosa Díaz, which focuses on bringing back and making the most of sugarcane farming; an organic fruit and vegetable farm with direct sales, proposed by Fabián Cabrera Fuentes; 'Zowaste Canarias,' by María González Ben Mohamed, which aims to transform agricultural waste into organic fertilizers and animal proteins using superworms; and finally, 'Agrored Canarias,' a digital platform by Ricardo Perera Ascanio, designed to help farmers sell their products directly.

The 'Business Initiative' awards came with prize money: 5,000 euros for first place, 4,000 euros for second, and 3,000 euros for third. In the 'Business Idea' category, each of the four winning projects received 600 euros.

Projects were judged on several factors, including their use of innovation and technology, how they help diversify the local economy, and their connection to the primary agricultural sector.

Valentín González, the island councilor for the Primary Sector, emphasized that "this initiative celebrates young people who are developing business projects in rural areas. The awards aim to encourage new generations to take up farming and highlight the agricultural sector as a valuable career choice."