Business federations warn that the island’s economy is in a “hole” and warn that the reconstruction has not even started
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Asprocan, Domingo Martín, stated this Wednesday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands that banana production on the island will recover 90% in at least two years if there are no problems with the irrigation facilities.
In an intervention before the commission for the reconstruction of the island after the volcanic eruption, he highlighted the consensus in the subsector for betting on cultivation when many farmers thought to “throw in the towel” and collect compensation for the lost land.
“We have had a very bad time,” he acknowledged, given that as a result of the eruption the island’s banana began to be despised, with differences of up to 40 cents with Tenerife, lamenting that the promotional image campaign of the crop damaged by the ash it didn’t help.
He pointed out that the aid they receive “is reasonable” and that Posei “is helping” while claiming the “strategic” nature of bananas for the entire island because it makes maritime traffic “attractive” and makes fertilizers cheaper.
Looking to the future, he has indicated that the management of water on the island must change because it is “medieval”, with owners who receive it from the Insular Water Council and resell it and others who pressure farmers to capture its fruit.
On the land buried by lava, he has defended the project proposed by the association as terraces, which would allow greater use of the surface, better natural adaptation to the land, a more efficient design of the roads and a lower overall cost if compared with that of individual recovery.
However, he has recognized that “going full speed ahead” will not take less than four or five years.
The president of the Palmera Association of Farmers and Ranchers (Aspa), Miguel Martín, has demanded the closure of the insular water ring, the construction of new roads, that there be unity to create new land on the lava flows and that the margins be used for new crops such as avocado or grapevine.
The president of the Federation of Businessmen’s Associations of La Palma (FAEP), Mercedes Hernández, has demanded “clarity” from the institutions and that they count on the businessmen, because so far they have not felt heard and the recovery “which has not begun , is not armored” for after the 2023 elections.
PUT IDEOLOGY ASIDE
He has criticized that economic aid does not reach the business fabric of the entire island and asked the political parties to put aside “ideology” because the economic situation “is very complicated”, with many “personal dramas” on the island .
In this line, he has warned that companies resort to over-indebtedness, the loss of liquidity and the increase in delinquencies in order to resist and has requested a “long-term” vision of the island where education and R&D are looked at + i.
For this reason, he has shown his surprise at “the doubts” that have been generated about the suitability of the island to house the future Volcanology Center.
David Fuentes, president of Fedepalma, has also supported the choice of La Palma as the seat of the national center and stressed that the eruption has generated an economic “hole” in La Palma that has aggravated the “structural problems” that the island already had.
Among them, he highlighted the lack of housing, excessive bureaucracy, legal insecurity for investment, the high dependence of the economy on subsidies from the primary sector and depopulation.
Thus, it has called for training improvements through Dual Vocational Training and the decentralization of university studies and discounts for transport and social security to make economic revitalization on the island more competitive.
ONLY THREE TOWN HALLS IN 2030
The economist Pedro Álvarez, who has appeared at the request of Sí Podemos, has said that the construction of housing must be “the first priority” on the island and that bananas be progressively replaced as the main crop on the island.
He has lamented that the laundry is being “destroyed” when there were “other options” and suggested that the Aridane Valley be grouped into a single municipality in such a way that in 2030 there will only be three municipalities on the island.
He has also warned of the risks of replicating on the island the development model that “has failed” on other islands.
“They force us to choose between the bad and the worst,” he explained, for which he asked for “high-mindedness” in the face of the “opportunity” that opens up to rethink the palmero socioeconomic model.
