The People’s Party in council requests “that the implementation of a mobile slaughterhouse on the Island be assessed.” The popular councilor Valentín González Évora values this measure as «an initiative to support livestock to promote the development of short distribution chains and to markets for local products’. The popular understand that it is the responsibility of the Cabildo “to launch lines of work that contribute to the maintenance and conservation of heritage, as well as the agrarian-rural and socioeconomic ecosystem of Tenerife.”
The proposal, in the form of a motion, is taken to the next Plenary Commission on the Natural Environment, Primary Sector and Municipal Cooperation of the insular institution. González Évora indicates that the popular “we understand that it is the responsibility of the Cabildo to launch lines of work in this regard.”
The popular counselor bases his initiative that «many farms in the South and North encounter the problem that, when it comes to slaughtering animals, they have to travel long distances to the Insular Slaughterhouse in the metropolitan area.
To the temporary argument due to geography, González adds that “this supposes an extra expense for many Tenerife farmers when it comes to putting their animals on the market.” He argues that “bringing this service closer to their livestock farms would relieve producers, as is already done in places like Galicia or Catalonia. He values in this regard that in these areas “the dispersion and small size of some farms are characteristics common to the Canary Islands and Tenerife.”
Create a system
The mobile slaughterhouse system would have a service trained by operators from different disciplines who would travel to small and medium-sized farms in the midlands or those located in isolated environments. The objective is to facilitate the slaughter of sheep, goats or rabbits and, ultimately, in poultry farms. This model, reflects the counselor, “It would contribute to reducing the costs of farmers, in addition to reducing the stress that the cattle suffer during the journey to the current slaughterhouse”. González Évora concludes: “the Popular Party will try to have the support of all political groups for this initiative because the Cabildo would help farmers to reduce costs and would promote greater profitability for small and medium-sized farms.” At the same time to “guarantee the traceability of the meat and an adequate management of the by-products”.
González expects unanimous support as in the agreement of the resolution proposal that he himself presented in the last plenary session to promote the complete provision of hospitals in the North and South, “infrastructures for which Tenerife has been waiting for 30 years” and that “represent one of the main complaints of the citizenry».
Direct public management
The Cabildo advances in the process for direct management in the Tenerife Insular Slaughterhouse. The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, announced in his day «a change of model in which, after all, it is a company». He recalled that “in Europe most have the status of public service and are profitable.” El Matadero is a joint venture with most of the shares in private hands. The Cabildo has 33.7%, the highest number with the rest very fragmented between municipalities, the Butchers Association or Agate, among other groups. On the other hand, the Cabildo has lowered this year, as a favorable measure for farmers, the slaughterhouse rates. To alleviate the crisis produced by the war in Ukraine, last March’s plenary session unanimously approved an institutional motion in support of livestock. Among the proposals, the suspension for one year of the payment of fees for the use of the slaughterhouse stands out, which will mean an estimated saving of 1.1 million euros for the sector. In addition, 15 million European Next Generation funds have been requested to build a new one in La Laguna. | jdm
