Are there enough Catalan calçots for so many calçotadas?

It's a common, everyday conversation that always comes up when calçotadas return. Are there enough calçots for all the calçotadas held in homes, farmhouses, and restaurants? In an era of free movement of food entering our markets from all over the world, the question is more relevant than ever. Is it possible that our farmers work themselves to the bone to cultivate the best calçots in the world, but those sold in markets come from other countries and haven't undergone the same quality controls as ours? The answer, at least according to the data, is no. We eat Catalan calçots.

And we have our reasons. In Valls, Rafel Castells, the initiator and facilitator of the current Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Calçot de Valls, tells me that in 2025, twenty million calçots were certified with the quality designation, the PGI Calçot de Valls. If we do the math and divide the twenty calçots (the usual amount in a bunch) that a person eats at a minimum during a calçotada by the twenty million calçots that came from the fields of Alt and Baix Camp, Tarragonès, and Baix Penedès, the result is that one million people could have eaten them last year. Catalonia has almost eight million inhabitants, so we might think that this is perhaps a small quantity of calçots for so many calçotadas.

So, I ask another question. I go to Mercabarna, the wholesale market, and they assure me that in 2025 they sold 8,849,772 calçots. Following the same pattern, that each person eats at least twenty, Mercabarna's sales added up to 442,488 people. The calçots sold at the wholesale market came mainly from the regions of Barcelona (3,063,487 units), Lleida (898,150 units), Girona (49,000 units), Castellón (137,630 units), Tarragona (4,483,744 units), and other regions of Spain.

One and a half million people made calçotades

The figure of one and a half million people is approximate, because Mercabarna states that some of the calçots from Tarragona might also be those certified with the Valls Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). This would mean adding up duplicate figures, but in any case, it would represent a portion of the four million calçots from Tarragona that Mercabarna sold last year. Therefore, there could be a margin of error, which is compounded by the fact that not all farmers sell their calçots to Mercabarna; some also sell them at local markets, without intermediaries. So, the total figure we're working with could be slightly higher. In any case, Mercabarna says it doesn't sell calçots from outside Spain, therefore, we maintain that approximately one and a half million people ate Catalan calçots last year. Murcia, Valencia, and Aragon also cultivate and sell to Mercabarna, but the number of units is far lower than that cultivated by the Valls PGI and those from Barcelona. Of course, this does not mean that we cannot find calçots grown outside of Catalonia in some supermarkets, but this will not be the majority case.

Our calçots, therefore, are the best local delicacy we can buy to honor our farmers. And if this argument isn't enough, we can turn to nutrition: when we eat, we ingest fiber, specifically oligofructose, which is a prebiotic, meaning it can feed bacteria, especially those that should be present in the colon – lactobacilli and bifidobacteria..Of course, these oligofructans are found in calçots and also in other allium vegetables, such as garlic, leeks, and onions in general. If we make a habit of eating them—and we also have calçotadas, now that they're in season—we're preventing cardiovascular diseases like diabetes and obesity in the long term, says nutritionist Dr. Anna Costa. So, there's enough laundry for all that soap. I mean, yes, there are enough Catalan calçots for all those calçotadas. Thank you so much to our farmers who cultivate the land every day!