The Government approves a 1,000 million prame for the agri-food sector to five days of elections in Castilla y León

The Council of Ministers has approved on Tuesday the strategic project of recovery and transformation of the agri-food sector, better known as a belong, which will be endowed with 1,000 million euros from European funds, although with private investment it is expected to have an impact of
3,000 million and 16,000 jobs are created.

The objective of this plan is to improve the competitiveness of a sector “which is strategic for the country”, in the words of the Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, Luis Flat.
It supposes 10% of our GDP and more than 100,000 million euros per year in gross added value, according to the figures it has given at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.

Spain has more than one million agricultural and livestock farms, 8,800 fishing vessels and 3,500 agri-food industries (most SMEs) that employ two million people and who “suppose a fundamental element of our economic structure, but also social and territorial”
.

A belong is a project that aims to promote strategic areas of the economy and improve their possible deficiencies, and which has public-private financing.
The agri-food sector seeks to increase competitiveness and also sustainability, especially before the challenges posed by climate change.
It also aims to promote issues related to traceability and food security.

The help will rotate around three axles.
One is the strengthening of the industry through improvement in production processes.
For this, 400 million will be allocated.
The second is the support for the digitalization of the agents of the value chain (farmers or ranchers, cooperatives and companies of transformation or distribution), with 454 million euros, and the third seeks to promote research and innovation, with 148 million
.

The approval of this belong announced on Monday the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, during an act in Almería.
It is approved a few days since elections are held in Castile and León and at a time when the field has starred several protests and mobilizations, especially by the rise in the costs they support.

“We are facing a moment of transformation from the primary sector,” has justified in this sense Luis FLAS, which has indicated that “therefore, it must have an elements of investment and accompaniment, as this belong, although that does not take away from within the Sector.
difficulties, which are real, like the rise of some costs “.

Asked about the controversial of the macrogranjas and in relation to the protests of ranchers in Lorca (Murcia), Luis Plans has pointed out that the government “rejects the use of any instrument that may coerce people or institutions.”

This belong, which will be managed by the Ministries of Agriculture and Industry, Trade and Tourism, constitutes, together with the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) and the law of the Agroalimentary Chain, “one of the great pillars” of the Government for this sector
.

Including the more than 47,000 million euros from the PAC, “it supposes the highest figure of injection of public funds that the sector has received in Spain”.
“This is the government that has done the most for the primary sector in our country,” he said flat.

The Spanish Federation of Food and Beverage Industries (FIAB) has valued the approval of the plan although it considers that aid is insufficient to transform the sector.
“We are a very atomized sector, constituted mostly by SMEs, and we trust that this model of governance allows aid to reach small and medium-sized enterprises, which represent 96% of the sector,” Mauricio García de Quevedo said,
General Director of Fiab.

The main interprofessional organizations of the livestock-meat sector also considers that the belong will help the modernization of the sector and will mobilize an “important private investment”.

The aid will be limited to the roof that the EU marks and, according to plans, the same action will not be financed with European funds.
In addition to this belong to the agri-food sector, the Government has approved another for the development of the electric vehicle, the avant-garde health and the renewable energy.