The livestock of Tenerife «it is a dead sector». The phrase of Juan Pelayo, from the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA), is conclusive and sums up the apocalyptic spirit that reigns among the associations of professional island producers when they launch a desperate SOS. If the outstanding aid is not urgently paid, “many will not even make it to the summer.” They represent it graphically with a box full of local goods and some pitchers of milk. They explain it: “Without those subsidies from the public administration and the application of the Food Chain Law once, the next time, the box will be empty.”
Pelayo is accompanied by Theo Hernando (Association of Farmers and Ranchers, Asaga-Asaja), Miguel López (Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations, COAG) and José Manuel Expósito (Association of Ranchers, Agate). Today they register the request to meet with the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, as they did on March 10 to reiterate the need to face a situation that since then “it has even worsened” they point out.
The key to this crisis lies in the high price of raw materials. The groups consider that the receipt of these funds, destined to reduce the extra cost of animal feed, and the control in the sales contracts with the distribution “would provide liquidity and help to relieve the farms of the current inflationary spiral.” They warn that “they cannot be the only measures, since it is necessary to reduce benefits to imported dairy and meat products and tax their entry to the islands.”
Pelayo warns that feeding the animals has farmers “asphyxiated” because “they don’t know what price they buy from one day to the next.” Sentence: “A sack of millet has gone from being worth 3 to 12 euros in record time.”
López, for his part, values that the different links in the production chain have to assume the extra costs in a rebalancing policy because “right now they fall exclusively on consumers and farmers.” He insists that “all the proposals have been taken up in assemblies” and, in the event that Torres does not attend to them, “they do not rule out any response action”, which will be decided again in the assembly.
The secretary general of Asaga-Asaja, Theo Hernando, considers that the measures at the regional and state levels are articulated “excessively slowly and many will not arrive on time.” In addition, he considers it essential to “involve the hospitality industry and that wine, cheese and meat be consumed in hotels and restaurants at decent prices.” Hernando advocates promotional campaigns that report that producing in the Canary Islands “is more expensive than in other places due to the quality of its products and the labor rights of workers.
José Manuel Expósito, from Agate, warns that “the situation is no joke” and calls for “measures to be taken given the seriousness of the events.”
The AIDS
The agricultural organizations urge the Government of the Canary Islands to “process, by urgent means, the 8.2 million plus the 2.5 from the State destined to reduce the extra cost of animal feed.” To that amount must be added the 1.3 from the Cabildo that “have not yet been charged either.” In parallel, they consider it vital to guarantee the application and compliance with the Food Chain Law “so that farmers receive remuneration above their production costs.”
The increase in feed and fodder prices has been “brutal” with increases since 2021 that reach 70%. The sector in the Archipelago is made up of 4,100 farms, 24% less, out of 1,000, compared to 2014 when there were 5,300. The downward trend is similar in Tenerife. Farmers consider that the war in Ukraine is one more burden because it has generated an inflationary spiral of inputs “with unpredictable effects in the future without being able to affect the rise in their sales prices to the consumer.” In this scenario of uncertainty, the administrative delay in processing the funds “aggravates the situation, since animal feed represents between 65% and 70% of the total expenses of a livestock farm.”
The sector demands a strategy with measures that will detail the president of the Canary Islands. Among them, the “immediate payment” of aid and a 20% increase in its amount; the reduction of aid from the Specific Supply Regime (REA) for imports of dairy and meat products and the imposition of a tax upon entry to the islands.
The ranchers demand the expansion of up to 25% in support for the importation of feed for livestock. They understand the key to “foster local forage production” and give the example of Fuerteventura. There are some 80,000 goats there that would need 1,600 hectares on the Island and only a little over a hundred are allocated. Finally, they demand promotional campaigns to raise awareness about the consumption of local products.
