SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, May 11. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands has paid a total of 8.5 million euros in direct aid to more than 900 owners of livestock farms on the islands who have been affected by the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The regional department, through GMR Canarias, has paid these funds for companies and self-employed owners of goat, sheep, cattle, rabbit, pig and poultry farms in order to alleviate the economic losses derived from the war.
As highlighted by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Alicia Vanoostende, “in a complex situation for the farmers of the Canary Islands, we reinforce and support their work with the budgetary increase in extraordinary aid that is essential to inject liquidity in an essential activity for our primary sector”.
The increase in the prices of raw materials for animal feed, as well as the increase in the cost of energy and fuel, have aggravated the situation of professionals in the sector. To this is added the specific characteristics of the islands which, due to their insularity and remoteness, have a greater dependence on external inputs, with an additional cost associated with transport.
In this sense, producers in the livestock sector also have great difficulties in transferring this increase in costs throughout the chain, which causes profit margins to suffer, jeopardizing their maintenance.
Alicia Vanoostende wanted to recall that the Government of the Canary Islands have reinforced the work of the sector with the implementation of various measures, among which are the more than 30 million euros of extraordinary aid for the sector (including Covid aid); the aid of the livestock POSEI for 2022 and this year has been improved; the application of the Food Chain Law and the program of control actions; the creation of the Price Observatory; the tool available to calculate production costs; product import and export dashboards; as well as the open data that is published on the Ministry’s website and in the AgriGobCan mobile application.
