Have You Seen this Man in Valencia?

Victor Mallet, Financial Times editor in Madrid, recently wrote an article stating that

“Valencia's quintessentially Spanish mix of "old economy" industries - orange growing, manufacturing (Ford makes cars in Valencia) and, above all, property development and construction - means it is suffering disproportionately from the global economic crisis and the collapse of Spain's housing bubble”.

Since his arrival in Madrid in 2008 Mr Mallet may be excused for his ignorance of Spain and of Valencia. As an Oxford graduate in English, he cannot be expected to understand economics, but then it would be unfair to expect an employee of Rupert Murdoch to understand anything related to fruit beyond two melons.

Mr Mallet is probably unaware that Valencia is the most fertile region in Europe thanks to the medieval system of irrigation built by the Arabs, and that as well as oranges, which arrived here from China when Valencia was an important stop of the silk trade route and had one of the most important silk production centres on the continent, it produces a lot of the fruit, vegetables and especially rice that adorn the tables of his favourite restaurants in Madrid (with perhaps the occasional weekend in Barcelona?)

He probably forgot the booming Valencian wine sector where for example the Vicente Gandia wine company, to name just one, currently exports to 85 countries.

The old economy that he refers to probably includes ceramics (Valencia is home of the world famous Lladró ceramic company and its province of Castellón is a major centre for ceramic production and exportation, with companies like Pamesa operating joint ventures with countries such as Brazil.

Other old industries are textiles, shoes and furniture, sectors that are suffering from cheap Asian imports, but which survive through investment in R&D and modern designs. But Mr Mallet didn’t speak to anybody in those sectors; he was probably working on his next article berating the sedentary citizens of Cornwall for their chronic dependence on tin mining.

The construction boom is a recent phenomenon in Valencia, but as Mr Mallet could have found out from Shakespeare, who had the Globe built on speculation, construction booms occur when an economy is booming and people have money to spend or are attracted to an attractive place, not vice versa. Many of the people who have been coming here in large numbers since the sixties were north Europeans looking for a land of opportunity (with good weather), anxious to get away from countries like Britain, where opportunities still depend on which old school tie you wear, Mr Mallet.

The basis of Mr Mallet’s incisive argument rests upon quotes from Juan Durá, figurehead President of the Valencian construction federation (FEVEC) but better known as a car dealership owner, and a 20 year old student he alledges to have found smoking on a street corner called Kevin, who seems to aspire to be a waiter. This is investigative journalism at its finest.

Perhaps he should have spoken to Eduardo Beut, General Secretary of the Public Works Federation (FECOVAL), who actually speaks English and could therefore converse with Mr Mallet. Mr Beut’s comment was that the FT article was surprisingly simplistic for such a prestigious newspaper. “I was surprised how easy it was to read: no puns, no oblique references to Greek tragedy or the West Wing”. Mr Beut, who discovered Pau Gasol according to Pau’s biography, is also an economist and was similarly surprised that the FT now employs Eng Lit graduates to write about the economy when so many English economists are unemployed.

In the 28 years that I have lived in Valencia I have watched the city and Community transform themselves from a provincial backwater with a complex about Madrid and Barcelona into a confident, vibrant city where people know how to work hard and enjoy themselves at the same time. But Valencia is not an industrial city, which is why so many people chose it over other Spanish capitals, it is a city of light and warmth, of a comfortable size with a mix of agriculture, service industries, tourism (the growth in museums has been spectacular) and innovation.

Valencia Polytechnic University is a world leader in start up companies specialising in High Tech, and if the Iberdrola Renewables company, which is busy building America’s wind farms, recently installed its headquarters in Valencia, then it is not only for the 300 days of sunshine per year.

Valencia was the first city where a letter of credit was signed in Europe and it will be doing business, innovating and diversifying as it always has done, when Mr Mallet is knocking himself on the head at his failure to publish his memoirs. May I suggest a title? ‘Cities I Must Visit Before I Write My Next Article’.

Fax it over when it’s finished Victor.