Its promoters are the couple Eva González and Nelson Alonso, who founded Veigas de Sabugueiro ten years ago. Their interest in enhancing the value of local resources led them to investigate the elderberry, a shrub of the caprifoliaceae family, two to five metres high, with small white flowers that grows naturally throughout Galicia.

The first step was to experiment with elderberry jam recipes, a product that surprised them with its properties and flavour. After the berry is harvested, it is crushed and pressed to extract the pulp, which is frozen to make products throughout the year. The result is a flavour with many aromas, which goes well with cheese, ice cream or meat.

Two years after the first experiment, they were immersed in the cultivation, transformation, elaboration and distribution of the first products marketed under the brand 'Carabuñas'. The elderberry plant is harvested once a year, in August, in a process similar to that of the grape harvest. 

Other proposals were added to the jams, such as beer, infusions or liquor, all of them with elderberry as a base.

Production on five hectares

Today they cultivate 5 hectares of land between Vilar de Santos and the north of Portugal, from which they obtain a production of 6,000 kilos of organic berries with which they make their certified products.

The success of the initiative, as explained by the founding partner, Eva González, was the commitment to research supported by the Regional Government of Galicia through the Galician Innovation Agency (Gain) and the Axencia Galega da Calidade Agroalimentaria (Agacal). With their help, they focussed on extracting the product's properties to learn more about its uses and benefits in order to achieve a quantitative leap for the company through the search for new diversification strategies.

The company currently has two product lines as a result of this collaboration. One of them focussed on the elderberry itself, with four varieties of jam, liqueur, two beers, chocolates, infusions and juice. The other line is marketed on the internet under the brand 'Gusto' with the sale, through baskets of products with a very careful design and aesthetic, of preserves or chocolates, designed for special occasions, such as the Christmas holidays.

Innovation is present in all their actions, hence the support of a campaign they launched in which the baskets of products included illustrations by Galician illustrators so that, according to Eva González, "in addition to giving food, art was also given as a gift".

There is a market for elderberry products, for which there was no tradition in Spain until the launch of the company, in Galicia and in large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao. Its products can be purchased in gourmet and organic spaces and in specialised shops, as well as online.

20% of the company's turnover, close to 150,000 euros in the last financial year, is already in internet sales, through a website with a very careful design with which they try to win over the most demanding consumer. Its participation in the programmes InnovaPeme and DeseñaPeme provided by the Regional Government of Galicia, has allowed them to develop the technological and digital part of the company with a customer manager and a sales platform through which they place their orders.

Since 2019, they have been immersed in a very innovative project of product development for medicinal purposes with which they expect to double their turnover this year and triple it in two more years.

They analysed the properties of the shrub and the results, very surprisingly, indicate that the Galician elderberry is far superior to that of other areas. Its antioxidant capacity is five times higher than that of blueberries and two to three times higher than that of European elderberries.

This welcome news opens up new commercialisation opportunities, for example in the pharmaceutical industry, an avenue that is already being explored.