The Insular Slaughterhouse of Tenerife will be managed directly by the council once the open process is completed to transform the current public-private model of the company into another one hundred percent public. The island government promotes a “complex administrative change”, in the words of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla. The opposition considers that “it has acted behind the back of the sector.”
“Never had such a budget volume been captured and executed for the promotion of livestock on the Island,” the councilor clarifies. He assures that “we saw it as essential to convert the Slaughterhouse, a mostly private entity, into a public one, as well as promoting exceptional measures, in the case of the suspension of slaughter and transport fees.” He understands that “the steps agreed upon and approved unanimously in plenary have been followed.” He considers that “We must assume as guarantors the procedures and times set by the administration.”
The Cabildo maintains the momentum in “the modernization” of the Slaughterhouse to adapt it to regulatory changes and anticipate possible problems of adaptation of a mixed entity to another public one. The financial operation for this goes through a capital increase or the acquisition of shares from the private party. The first option has been chosen because it is “more efficient”.
According to the insular financial control services, it is necessary to determine the economic activity of the Cabildo in the Matadero, located in Guamasa (La Laguna). “This procedure was marked at the end of August, the file was assembled in September, taken to the Governing Council at the beginning of October, to the plenary commission on the 20th and to the plenary session on the 28th,” Parrilla lists. This path will culminate, if all reports are positive, in a Public Slaughterhouse.
Another process, “also complex,” says Parrilla, is the suspension of rates. It guarantees the impulse of the insular government with the necessary funds. The Intervention of the Cabildo has determined that the procedure involves converting the Slaughterhouse into what is legally called a collaborating entity, to comply with the Subsidy Law.
In a few days the result of the mandatory report will be available. If it is positive, it will allow an amount to be transferred to the Slaughterhouse “to maintain the economic and financial balance”, under the law of capital companies. “This prevents advancing the measure that we proposed to the Board of Directors,” says Parrilla. Sentence: “Things must be done well and time will prove us right in the face of criticism that denotes an absolute lack of confidence in the capacity of our livestock sector.”
The counselor defends that “this crisis attacks the sector that suffers the effects of a war, but that does not mean that the island’s livestock is weak. Quite the contrary. They have resisted and resist, with the help, but mainly with their know-how and professionalism. Other sectors would have collapsed. Grill argues that «Cattle ranchers show day by day that this Island can trust that they will keep feeding; They sustain us all.”
Parrilla declares himself a defender of the direct management of a public slaughterhouse “since before the crisis”. But “that does not mean the disastrous model of Canarian Coalition for 30 years. Neither patronage, nor guardianship. He continues: “We have great professionals who have demonstrated their ability to respond to feed the inhabitants of Tenerife in the worst moments of confinement.” Now, “global uncertainty forces them to overcome another obstacle. The Cabildo is next to the sector and will continue to be.
A message: “The government of Pedro Martín is focused on providing day-to-day solutions and laying foundations that allow economic activity and sustain business confidence to maintain assistance activity.” He considers that the opposition denotes “ignorance as if the sector were an entity without complexity or richness, monolithic and monochrome, which they have claimed for 30 years. And they are wrong.”
Parrilla sums up: “Tenerife’s livestock is diverse with different uses, mostly artisanal, but highly professionalized.” It presents difficulties, «with the addition of dealing with living beings. It combines innovation and ancestral knowledge.”
The Cabildo also works to promote meat, through the Carnes Frescas Tenerife brand, cheese or honey. Parrilla highlights «the quality and differentiation of our local product. In congresses or fairs it always stands out». A way to release production and help the sector.
“Lack of management”
The Popular Party denounces that “the lack of management” of the Slaughterhouse causes “uncertainty” in the agricultural sector. The director Valentín González assures: «The director of the area (Javier Parrilla) announced almost a year ago an investment of close to a million euros for direct management and it has not arrived». He understands that this has caused greater uncertainty among Tenerife farmers.
Parrilla, according to González, «has had to return the administrative file for incomplete and lacking documentation; he has had to start another regularization of services ». He believes that “precious time has been lost between bewilderment, improvisation and lurching.”
The PP counselor recalls that the primary sector in Tenerife is suffering the consequences of a pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the increase in the cost of supplies and the increase in the price of food for animals, fuel or electricity. “The sector asks for financial support, legal certainty and certainty from public administrations,” he says, “but what they receive is the failure to meet economic commitments.”
Coalition calls for fee suspension
Canarian Coalition demands the suspension of fees for the use of the Insular Slaughterhouse “urgently”. The nationalist councilor Antolín Bueno points out that “the livestock sector has been waiting since March”, when the unanimous agreement was approved in the Cabildo, “for a measure that represents a saving of 1.1 million euros.” Bueno assesses: “The delay of the PSOE in complying with the agreements harms the sector, which is in great need.” He recalls that “many ranchers are at the limit.” The increase in costs – feed and fodder, mainly – “has forced some to have to sacrifice animals because they cannot afford their maintenance.”
