A vibrant terroir

Say “Geneva” and you evoke visions of lakeshore dominated by a water geiser shooting high into the sky – the city’s iconic Jet d’Eau – or associations with humanitarian organizations, banks, and luxury watches. But the urban fabric is far from all there is to Geneva; its rich farmlands make the canton, or state, one of the major agricultural producers in all of Switzerland. Consider this:  one out of every five tomatoes produced in Switzerland is grown in Geneva. That comes as a big surprise, doesn’t it?

Geneva’s strong farming tradition has its roots in the 19th century. Today, 50 veg farmers together with some 350 helpers cultivate the fertile lands in Switzerland’s western-most canton to satisfy the demands of discerning distributors and consumers alike.

Interestingly, Geneva’s farming zone doesn’t stop abruptly at its borders with France, the country that surrounds the canton except for some 4 km of land linking it with the rest of Switzerland. As decreed in 1933 (Sentence arbitrale de Territet), Geneva benefits from a special status: its agricultural area includes so-called zones franches, or free zones, in France from which Geneva growers can import their produce into Switzerland duty-free. What is more, that produce is considered Swiss, so products grown in Geneva’s free zones may bear the “Suisse Garantie” and “Genève Région – Terre avenir” labels if they respect regulatory and sectorial measures and undergo the mandatory controls. Readers of French who want some historical background about the free zones can log on to the Canton of Geneva’s archives at:

http://etat.geneve.ch/dt/site/interieur/archives/master-content.jsp?pubId=2208&nodeId=2188&componentId=kmelia66 (in French).

Produce grown in the canton of Geneva and the free zones includes a total of some 20,000 tons of more than 50 varieties of vegetables. In terms of growing space, that translates into 36 hectares of glass and plastic covered greenhouses, 22 hectares of plastic tunnels, and some 250 hectares of field.

Geneva’s veg farmers have stayed faithful to a traditional range of produce even as a spirit of curiosity and professionalism has led them to branch out into a long list of other specialties.

Much of the produce sold by the canton’s farmers bears the labels “Suisse Garantie”, “Genève Région-Terre Avenir” and “Côté Jardin”.

A break-down of production by type of produce