Santiago Domínguez: one of the largest potato producers in Spain

They say if you want, you can. It is a maxim of self-help books that looks great as a headline but that is difficult to put into practice and more so in these times. The process to achieve your goals has to be based on effort and learning.

The old dream of reaching the top from nothing is reflected in Santiago Domínguez Martínez, a farmer from the Valladolid municipality of Nueva Villa de las Torres, who has achieved some of his dreams.

And hopefully some more dream that spreads in the future. And yes, he has done it starting from the bottom, like that bellboy who manages to be a hotel manager. “The secret is to suffer it, fight it and learn it”, a maxim that today's overrated coaches could perfectly use.

Until he was 20 years old, and based on effort and sacrifice, he joined the world of work as a day laborer picking potatoes and working in the vineyards: pruning, harvesting, etc. As well as working in the wineries and vines on the lands of Rueda for four or five years. They were his main jobs and that's how he got to know what this sector was like.

His father was also a farmer with a small farm that was not suitable for joining the agricultural sector, and he had to undertake and rent other farms and other lands in Castilla y León. Now, at the age of 43, he never imagined that 25 years later, he would become the owner of 670 hectares distributed between Castilla y León, Andalusia and Castilla la Mancha, becoming the largest potato producer in Spain and employing more than 250 people. A successful businessman who has collected all the effort he has made in recent years.

Apart from becoming the largest producer of this tuber at a national level, he also bet and undertook his other passion: the world of wine, which he also knew from his roots as a worker in the vineyards and wineries. In his memory those mornings harvesting and pruning is said to be one of the hardest jobs in the lands of Rueda.

Not only picking grapes but also pruning in the harsh Castilian winters and later as an employee in a winery.

Well, he is now the owner of Bodega Pandora in the D.O Rueda, where he currently has 10 workers with a production of 1.5 million bottles. And since there are not two without three, Santiago also worked on a cattle farm in his youth and now manages a horse breeding farm, an activity that he intends to expand in the coming years with the start-up of a rural hotel and a beautiful farm. of ash forests, where to celebrate events and weddings in "Finca Ermita de Torreduero" in Torrecilla de la Abadesa. “For me it is a feat and this project is very exciting, with which I hope to be successful.”

He insists that success lies in "suffering it, fighting it and learning it" and in practice, "having the ability to sell", which is "the priority" to "create a product and know how to sell it".

The most beautiful thing about this whole story is that Santiago does not forget his roots, his beginnings in the dry Castilian fields, for this reason, he always leads his people “to the maximum”. He tries to generate "all the wealth possible", give work to those closest to him and do business with companies in the sector in the area.

Between the fields, the winery and the mare farm, he gives permanent employment to 20 people, while in the grape and potato harvesting campaign he does so for up to 300 people, either hired by him or by external companies.

Something that means that in Nueva Villa de las Torres, with just over 282 inhabitants, there is no unemployment. “We are very hard-working minded people, and we help each other. I have no ambition for money, and it makes me happy to see those around me grow”, he is sincere.

CEOE Valladolid Award

Domínguez is no stranger to modern times and in all his agricultural activity he implements technological innovation processes that allow him to improve his production and guarantee the sustainable development of his activity.

For his work and innovation, the Valladolid Confederation of Entrepreneurs, CEOE Valladolid, recognized him on Thursday, May 4 at the Business Gala "La Noche de las Empresas", an act of recognition of the efforts made by companies to maintain and create employment, generate prosperity, contribute to the development of Valladolid and favor the attraction of investments to build a more prosperous Valladolid.

In his case, he is "very excited", but above all thinking about the family, especially the parents, who have also dedicated themselves to this beautiful profession "in the end it is why you feel proud and happy about all this" .

What this farmer cannot fight against is the lack of water. "A problem that can be very big if it does not rain in the next few days".