Companhia das Lezírias
Encyclopedia
The Companhia das Lezírias (Lezírias Company) or CL for short (the only two letters in the company logotype), is a state-run agriculture and forestry company located in the Lezíria do Tejo
Lezíria do Tejo
Lezíria do Tejo is a Portuguese NUTS III subregion, part of NUTS II Alentejo Region.Lezíria do Tejo belonging to Lisboa e Vale do Tejo Region for planning, but to Lisbon Region in the NUTS scheme, has its main urban center in the city of Santarém and almost coincides with the traditional Ribatejo...

 subregion, and headquartered in Samora Correia, Benavente municipality, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. It was founded in the 19th century by the Portuguese Crown. The company is an ecological sanctuary and periurban farming area, near Grande Lisboa
Grande Lisboa
Grande Lisboa is a Portuguese NUTS III subregion integrated in the Lisboa Region. It includes the capital city of Portugal - Lisbon . It is the main economical subregion of the country. It covers 1,376 km² and is the most populated and densely populated Portuguese subregion...

 subregion - the most populated subregion of Portugal. The company produces rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, cork
Cork (material)
Cork is an impermeable, buoyant material, a prime-subset of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber , which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa...

, and livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

, as well as being a reputed horse breeder
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

. In addition to its farming, forestry, and animal production activities, the Companhia das Lezírias has organised top equestrian events.

History

The Lezírias Company was founded in 1836 when the Portuguese Crown sold properties located near the capital city of Portugal - Lisbon. It comprised 48,000 hectares of land located between the Tagus River and Sado River
Sado River
The Sado River is a river in Southern Portugal, and is one of the major rivers in the country. It flows in a South/North direction through 175 km from its springs in the Caldeirão hills before entering the Atlantic Ocean in an estuary in the city of Setúbal.In Setúbal, its estuary is famous...

. This property was reduced to less than half for global crisis such as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 and the World Wars, as well as local climatic, seismic catastrophes and political turmoil which led to extensive land transaction. Nevertheless, the company was an important infrastructure for Portuguese agriculture throughout history, its modernity and technological developments in animal and vegetable farming as in forestry were always noted in the country. After 138 years, the Lezírias Company was nationalized, hence returning to public ownership status. The enterprise's economic sustainability and the policy to prevent urbanization from spreading there are the main tasks of its current administrations.
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