Ángela Delgado, president of Asaga, considers that the maritime line will be the gateway for products from Morocco and a serious detriment to the primary sector of Tenerife”, contrary to the opinion of the Cabildo.
In statements to Onda Tenerife, Delgado expressed his refusal to recover the maritime line from Fuerteventura to Tarfaya, in Morocco, because he understands that “it will be a gateway for diseases for livestock and pests for our agriculture.
We know about the poor health of Moroccan products, and, although they say that we can export to that country, the truth is that it will become a more open door to the importation of uncontrolled products from Morocco, illegal products that already enter the Canary Islands. in a disguised way, with incorrect labeling. Now they are going to flood us with tomatoes, pineapples and avocados that do not comply with European phytosanitary regulations, when we have an order of 87 that subtropical or tropical products cannot enter. A PCF (Border Control Post) is promised, but we know that there is no staff for it, because the officials already admit that they are at 50% of the places to be filled and are overwhelmed.”
This position goes against what the Cabildo of Tenerife thinks, although Delgado states that “I do not believe that he has powers in this and the regional Minister of Agriculture does, who has been against this maritime line with Tarfaya.”
Asaga imports potatoes from Israel and seeds from England, and “we do it with all the controls, but only when there are no potatoes in the Canary Islands. We plant fewer and fewer potatoes on the Islands. After Brexit we had problems getting the ships with the seeds to come and what happened was that all the productions were planted at the same time and that caused prices to fall in years 21 and 22, especially between January and March.” .
Ángela Delgado insists that “crops in the Canary Islands are in decline, because to the lack of water we have to add the importation of pests, which is why our farmers are throwing in the towel. When our primary sector runs out, prices will rise more, because they will give us whatever they want. When we object to a farm, when we object to the primary sector, because what matters here is importing. We have a very contradictory discourse. They made us remove the chicken cages due to animal abuse, we sold them to Morocco and now we import the eggs from Morocco and no one says anything. That is the double standard that we have to make ourselves look at. Sadly we are destined to disappear.”
“We farmers spend all day looking at the sky, seeing where the wind is coming from, where the planes land or leave, if the air is coming from the south to know if it is going to rain. But not all the storms go north and do not even touch the Canary Islands. Neither Juan nor Irene nor Hipólito passed through here, not like Filomena, who behaved here like a lady, even though higher up she caused the destruction that she did. It’s a shame, but the medians are getting worse every day and the wells and galleries are dry and we have no other sources of water supply,” she said.
Furthermore, he added that “the primary sector is finding it increasingly difficult to continue producing despite the fertile soil we have. We must ensure that all these treatment plants can bring us sewage, but we already see it in Güímar, where a large treatment plant was completed two years ago, but the water from the sewage networks does not reach it.”
