An Engrained Tradition: The Story of a Rice Maker in Valencia
The smell of flour permeates the room. Machines clank together. The noises bounce off the stark white walls.The whole factory looks covered in pixie dust. Miguel Alfonso Chirivella prepares a sample of rice to be quality-tested.
Chirivella, a second-generation Valenciano rice maker, took over the family business from his father who opened their factory, Arroz La Campana, in 1957.
But before the factory came into existence, Chirivella’s grandfather was a small farmer — like the ones in the book “Cañas Y Barro” written by Blasco Ibañez — who bought a small piece of land.
“My grandfather, with a little boat, was one of those men who filled a parcel of the Albufera Lake with mud,” says Chirivella. “He transformed it.”
Chirivella’s father, who founded the business, passed the farm on to him.
“My father made a small artisanal rice mill,” says Chirivella. “We bought rice driers, we made the silos, the warehouse and everything else.”
The business moved to the facilities in Catarroja, where the rice is packaged.
They still use a facility in Sollana, inside the Natural Park of La Albufera, for dehydrating the rice.
As the land was passed down and Chirivella’s father expanded the business, Chirivella found himself immersed in the centuries-old Spanish tradition.
He has now modernized the business and machines do more of the day-to-day labor he witnessed growing up.
Now his factory processes rice in a series of steps to ensure the rice the up to par before it is packaged.
Chirivella demonstrates in his lab the process in which a sample of rice is tested and whether or not it is given the approval to move ahead in the rest of the process. Chirivella first takes a sample from the rice truck and measure it the humidity level, which cannot be higher than 15%.
Once the rice passes for the level of humidity, it is then peeled down to the grain, the edible part.
“The mill processes six tons of paddy rice per hour,” says Chirivella. “The mill usually works twelve hours, so we process 79 tons of paddy rice a day.”
The rice industry poses some challenges. In 1957 when the factory was opened, only one type of rice was being produced, round rice. Fast-forward 20 years and now there a multiple forms of rice being produced.
Chirivella started processing long rice and imports basmati rice from Pakistan and India, just to keep up with the demand of the industry. The factory also imports American Calrose, round shaped rice used for sushi, from California.
“So, there is competition, and you have to position your brand so the housewife will choose you brand,” says Chirivella. “Now we import and export rice because consumers demand many different things.”
Chirivella has the upper advantage of selling his product to the locals because they produce the unique Bomba rice that is native to Valencia. This type of rice is what gives paella its true meaning.
“You cannot make paella with long rice, and round rice cannot be cooked as a side of rice,” says Chirivella.
Chirivella started working with rice when he was young because that was the common thing in his house. He would play in the rice fields as a boy and decided he wanted to keep up with the business his father had funded. But the tradition ends with him because his kids do not want to follow in his footsteps and take over the family business.
Even without the family business being passed on, he was happy to keep his family tradition alive because it was something that he grew up with.
“I feel very satisfied about what I have done,” says Chirivella. “I have always liked my work.”
