CC-PNC in it council from Tenerife demands “an urgent shock plan” with a financial statement of four million euros to help the primary sector. The nationalist counselor Antolín Bueno will defend a motion that seeks “alleviate the increase in the cost of basic products due to inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Bueno proposes “to carry out a review to enhance the weight of the agricultural sector in the island economy, reduce dependence on foreign countries and generate employment.”
Bueno will develop this approach in the next plenary commission on the Natural Environment and Municipal Cooperation. The intention is that the Cabildo “make an extraordinary and urgent contribution to, precisely, help a strategic sector.”
The CC counselor recalls that “there are 277 million euros remaining – money that the Cabildo has not spent – that can be used for this.” Antolín Bueno points out: “We request two million euros for an urgent call for aid to cover the cost of food on livestock farms in Tenerife.” The objective of this contribution is to alleviate the increase in the price of food and others caused by the war between Ukraine and Russia.
On the other hand, a call for direct aid of another two million euros “for the consolidation of employment in the primary sector on our Island” is also proposed.
Complicated tessitura
The CC-PNC adviser explains in his argument that “the primary sector has been going through a complicated situation for years that has been aggravated by the current crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.”
To that we must add the disproportionate increase in inflation, which is almost close to 10%, which, in Bueno’s opinion, “causes an almost unsustainable situation in our primary sector.” He adds in this sense that “we have the opportunity to diversify the economic model and review the role of the primary sector in our economy.” He proposes enhancing its role “to generate employment, reduce our dependence on foreign countries and at the same time increase our food sovereignty”.
Antolín Bueno warns that “the most alarming situation is that of livestock farming” due to its almost total dependence on foreign sources of imported food supplies, such as feed and fodder.
The prices of these fundamental raw materials for livestock feed increased by more than 40% in 2021 and in the first three months of 2022 these costs have increased by more than 20%. “This situation is suffocating many ranchers in Tenerife” concludes the CC counselor.
dark panorama in fishing
Likewise, says Bueno, “many fishermen cannot go out to fish due to the increase in the price of diesel and supplies for this activity”. That is why “the catches they make do not give them to cover the costs.” The same thing happens, according to the approach of the Tenerife nationalists, with the farmers, who have seen how the price of energy and transport has increased.
The case of electricity is bloody, since it has even caused some farmers to stop the wells due to the enormous cost of extracting water. Antolín Bueno points out to conclude that these four million euros “can help maintain and strengthen the primary sector in Tenerife, both for the conservation of the landscape, the environment and our identity, as well as for economic activity and employment linked to it” .
