Emilio Fernández and Ibernalo Mendivi, Luis María Henares, Chus García and José Antonio González, winners of the 13th APAE Agri-Food Journalism Awards

The journalists Emilio Fernández and Ibernalo Mendivi, from La Tribuna de Albacete, Luis María Henares, from Onda Aranjuez, Chus García, from Heraldo de Aragón, and José Antonio González, from the Vocento group, have won the 13th edition of the Journalism Awards organised by the Spanish Association of Agri-Food Journalists (APAE).

Emilio Fernández and Ibernalo Mendivi have won in the "General" category for the Drought hits the countryside fourfold article published on 7th May 2023 in La Tribuna de Albacete. In the "Fruit and Vegetables" category, sponsored by Fruit Attraction, the jury has decided to award the prize to Luis María Henares, author of The Aranjuez strawberry, the survival of the jewel in the garden of the Aranjuez area report, broadcast on the "Aranjuez Abierto" programme on Onda Aranjuez on 12th June 2023.

The winning entry in the "Innovation" category, sponsored by Corteva, was published on 23rd April 2023 in the Heraldo del Campo, Heraldo de Aragón's supplement dedicated to agri-food information: Watering without looking at the electricity bill, written by journalist Chus García. And in the Agri-food Sustainability category, which is sponsored by Cajamar, the winning entry was the report titled The secret of greenhouse tomatoes 'watered' with smoke from a chimney published in the Antropía section of the regional newspapers of the Vocento group on 22nd July 2023 and written by journalist José Antonio González.

In this edition, the jury was made up by Mónica Tourón, general secretary of the Madrid Press Association; Begoña Jiménez, head of communication at FEPEX; José Manuel Álvarez, head of communication for the Carne y Salud Platform and member of APAE; Icíar Martínez de Lecea, head of press for IFEMA events; Natalia Castejón, head of communication at AEPLA; Horacio González Alemán, consultant at Thoffood; Ana Blanco, Corporate Communications & Social Media Manager of Corteva Agriscience in Iberia; Paloma Bravo, responsible for Relations with the Media of the Communication Management of the Cajamar Cooperative Group; Eva Sereno, one of the winners of the previous contest; Elisa Plumed, president of APAE and Lourdes Zuriaga, vice president of the same association. In total, the jury had to evaluate 42 entries in the different categories. The awards aim to promote the development of agri-food journalism in conditions of recognition and prestige.

Emilio Fernández Castro (A Coruña, 1965) holds a degree in Geography and History from the UNED. He worked for the Vértice de Comunicación Audiovisual and Formato Vídeo production companies in La Coruña between 1989 and 1990. He moved to Olympus Communication in 1990. Between 1992 and 1997, he was ABC correspondent in Albacete; press officer for Albacete City Council between 1997 and 1999. He joined La Tribuna de Albacete in 1999. He has worked in the Sports, Supplements, Local and Province sections. He has been editing the weekly supplement of Agriculture since 2001. Ibernalo Mendivil Rotachar (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1964) holds a degree in Information Sciences from the UPV-EHU. He worked for the Olympus Comunicación TV production company in Santiago de Compostela between 1990 and 1992. Since 1992 he has been a member of the editorial staff of the La Tribuna de Albacete newspaper. He has worked in the Local, Weekends and Province sections, where he is currently based.

Luis María Henares Cebrián (Barakaldo, 1974) has spent a large part of his professional career in the field of local journalism linked to the Onda Aranjuez radio station, carrying out informative work and, in a special manner, linked to social content, with thematic programmes on the elderly, people with functional diversity or people with mental illness. He has collaborated with written media such as Cuatro Esquinas and La Ribera and its county. He has also been a correspondent for Radio Nacional de España. Outside the local sphere, he has worked in regional news on Radio Granada- Cadena Ser and, at a national level, on the Radiovoz channel.

Chus García Villa (Zaragoza, 1967) holds a degree in Information Science and Journalism from the University of the Basque Country and a master's degree in Economic Information from the University of Zaragoza. Specialised in agri-food information, she joined the editorial staff of Heraldo de Aragón in 2001, where she is part of the Economy section, where she coordinates the Heraldo del Campo supplement, which is published (in paper and digital format) on Sundays. Throughout her professional career she has worked at Radio Nacional, at the Aragonese branch of ABC, at El Periódico de Aragón and as head of communications at the Federación de Cooperativas de Trabajo Asociado, until she joined the Heraldo de Aragón more than two decades ago.

José Antonio González Martínez (Madrid, 1989) holds a degree in Journalism from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and is a television, radio and entertainment producer. Since 2015, he has been a contributor to the Innova+ section of Vocento's regional newspapers. He now works in the Antropía section.

Presentation of awards

The accreditation diplomas will be awarded next Wednesday, 4th October following a conference on "Food waste and circular economy in the fruit and vegetable industry" to be held during the Fruit Attraction trade fair (IFEMA, Madrid) in the Espacio Fruit Next space in Hall 10. The day will start at 3:30 p.m. and the prize-giving ceremony is scheduled to take place at around 4:20 p.m.