A Visit to La Catedral de Navarra in Spain

Some of our team spent time in Barcelona at the 2026 Alimentaria trade show this March. What a wonderful chance to meet with our vendors, network in person, and review not only product lines and areas of improvement, but also market trends, importation issues, even port congestion and other logistics that may impact business. It’s also great for learning about new products and producers.  

Side Quest  

While in Spain, Audrey Brown, Vice President of Gourmet, and Michelle Corna, Category Director, visited La Catedral de Navarra, a company known for its premium preserved vegetables. It was founded in the mid-20th century and is still managed by the Lopez family.  

“Visiting vendors is my absolute favorite part of the job. Meeting producers and, in most cases, their families, is so special. I love hearing their stories about how they got started and how business has evolved with every generation. La Catedral is now fourth generation.”  - Michelle Corna 

The Origin Story 

During the Spanish Civil War, preserving food was done for survival. Petra López, the grandmother of the current owner of La Catedral, started a small business in Mendavia, combining her knowledge of the field with a creative and entrepreneurial spirit. Her family preserved vegetables in tins and by the mid-1940s, was selling a line that included artichokes, tomatoes, peppers, white asparagus, and leeks.  

Since then, the family's efforts have focused on sourcing the best vegetables and preserving their flavor in the most natural way. Once Cayo Jr. was old enough to take the reins, he decided they needed to focus more on the premium aspect of their agricultural production, and thus the family business became known as La Catedral.  

From Premium Produce to Perfect Preserves 

Each product from La Catedral reflects a deep respect for tradition, quality, and the rich agricultural heritage of Navarra. That’s their secret: source excellent, fresh raw materials from nearby farms, grown by families they know, with the strictest quality controls at each step of the process. Many of their products are DOP certified and follow meticulous laws set by the government for quality, authenticity, superior flavor, and traditional cultivation methods. 

Everything must be done in season, following the natural cycle of the plants, which produces the best results, with maximum flavor, aroma, and texture. The freshly picked, perfectly ripe vegetables are then processed at their local facility, with all the work orchestrated to capture the true essence of the harvest.  

La Catedral processes each vegetable to avoid the loss of its fresh fragrance; the asparagus is blanched with the skin on to protect all its properties, and the peppers never touch water to preserve the intense flavor of piquillo peppers that have just come off the stove. Everything is manually packed according to the strictest health and flavor controls, with little extra, using only natural ingredients.  

“So much is done by hand and with such care. Only women are on the production line hand-turning artichokes and stuffing them one by one into jars. Lids are hand sealed and hand labeled and carefully packed into boxes to ship to us.” - Michelle  

Audrey and Michelle were taken through the processing plant, the warehouse, and to a farm to see how white asparagus is grown under mounds of earth, harvested in the dark of night, and processed without exposure to light.  They saw DOP Blanca de Tudela white artichokes being hand-processed, from the field to the jar. 

“We were also able to harvest their white asparagus in their fields, which is definitely a memory I will never forget. White asparagus never sees the sun—not while growing, not while harvesting and once processed; it gets covered while in storage to prevent discoloration. Really a special product.” - Michelle 

Ask about our La Catedral products: Piquillo Peppers, Artichoke Halves in Brine, White Asparagus, Broad Beans in Olive Oil.