Waiting for the meeting scheduled for next Monday with the Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, Luis Flat, the agrarian sector fulfills his word and has already begun with the schedule of mobilizations foreseen to claim ‘fair prices’ and the approval of
Measures to alleviate the exorbitant increase in raw materials experienced in recent times, which threatens to close thousands of farms throughout Spain.
Thus, this Wednesday has focused against the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture itself in Madrid some 600 farmers in the fruit and vegetable sector, and as it is also common, it has done it in a united manner with representatives of the main agricultural organizations ( Asaja, COAG and UPA), together with Agricultural Cooperatives and the Association of Organizations of Fruit Producers and Vegetables of Almería (COEXPHAL). Not only have farmers of this province have been expressed in the production of fruits and vegetables in inner cultivation (greenhouses) – but also from the rest of important territories of this sector such as Murcia, Extremadura, Aragon or La Rioja. The producers have denounced the rise in the inputs but also the “unfair competition” that continue to carry out the productions from Morocco, despite the fact that a recent judgment of the General Court of the European Union ordered to cancel trade and fishing agreements between Morocco and the EU, as claimed by the Polisario Front.
“Production costs drowned us,” prayed the main slogan of concentration, where the start-up of a special agrarian rate for the consumption of electricity, basic in this sector, has been required, both in production in the farms.
in the communities of irrigators and in the manipulated plants;
In addition, the upward revision of the compensatory VAT for farmers in objective estimate up to 14%;
as well as other fiscal measures, including the deduction of the non-amortizable fertilizer and plastics invoice and the increase in the percentage of difficult justification in direct estimation.
Finally, they ask for a reduced agricultural VAT of 10% for all production inputs, in addition to a review of entry prices with third countries as well as the control of imports and the payment of tariffs: “The quotas are skipped and there is no
Controls at the borders “, complains Francisca Iglesias, General Secretary of UPA Almería, which demands the Government of Spain with a clear defense of the sector and” that once clarifies its position with respect to the interests it has with Morocco. ”
This agrarian leader qualifies the situation of fruits and vegetables in Spain as “regrettable” and criticizes that in the last seven months production costs “have skyrocketed”.
She puts as an example the price of water, whose cubic meter has risen from 0.50 euros to 0.80;
In addition to electricity, plastic or phytosanitary products: “The problem is that we can not upload that extra cost in the sale of our products because the Law of the Food Chain is a dead regulation, does not apply and penalize the links
Weaker, such as producers and marketing origin in front of the great distribution, which prefers, for being the cheapest costs, buying third countries, especially Morocco “.
The cost of production per hectare of cultivation of this sector in our country ranges from average between 50,000 and 70,000 euros.
In this same line, Antonio Navarro, from Asaja Almería, which puts the accent on two fundamental issues: “The rise in production costs, estimated at 30%, comes to give the sprig to a sector affected by its own crisis
Structural and for the purposes of the lack of control of trade agreements with extra-Community countries that are putting on jaque the survival of this productive model, “sums up.
In addition, it points to a study conducted by this agricultural organization evaluates at 7,700 euros more of spending to the farmer per hectare of vegetable with respect to last year.
“This is impossible to survive,” he regrets him.
In addition to the constant and almost daily of the dairy sector in communities such as Galicia or Cantabria, the next planned concentration of the agricultural sector plans to be carried out in Mérida on December 2, the six convening organizations of the protest have accused the delegation of government of
Extremadura to try to limit the right to manifest itself from farmers and “censoring and silent” the discomfort of the Field of Extremadura “by cutting the manifestation in three hours, as well as the number of participants, reducing a maximum of 300 people” those that are
They will be able to concentrate the doors of presidency of the Extremadura Board.
“These two impositions, in addition to being a clear ablaze to the rights of farmers and farmers, are the clearest example of the little democratic area of national and regional authorities, and the fear they have criticism”, assess the organizers.
