The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has presented, within the framework of the Bureau of Agrarian Dialogue, the response given by the Government to address "most of the claims" raised by the agricultural organizations calling for the mobilizations , Asaja, COAG and UPA, to improve the profitability of farms and achieve fair prices.
The minister stressed that this Government has acted quickly and in coordination to respond to farmers' problems. He referred to the fact that, just 3 weeks after the constitution of the Agrarian Dialogue Table, the Government has put on the table a broad package of concrete measures to respond to the demands posed by Spanish farmers and ranchers to achieve a better distribution fair margins in the value chain, improve farm profitability and achieve fair prices.
In addition to the actions included in the Royal Decree-Law, the Government has proposed to the agrarian organizations calling for the demonstrations an additional package to respond to the demands raised, which covers the following areas:
- Price formation along the value chain.
- Agricultural insurance
- CAP budget.
- Energy cost of farms.
- Taxation.
- Financing.
- Work expenses.
- Reciprocity of imports from third countries.
- Irrigation
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food undertakes to continue working, already in the framework of the usual meetings of the Agricultural Advisory Council, with the representative organizations of the sector, to deepen the pending aspects related to taxation and energy costs, agricultural insurance , sectoral issues and development of the Law of the Chain.
List of measures
- Obligatory to take into account production costs in contracts; prohibition of establishing prices below the cost of production (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- Prohibition of the sale at losses (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- Regulation of commercial promotions to prevent the banalization of agricultural products (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- Publicity of the sanctions for the agents who have committed serious or very serious infractions (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- Strengthen the role of the Food Inspection and Control Agency (AICA). The Government is committed to increasing its budget and staffing.
- The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will promote that the autonomous communities cooperate in the realization of controls within the framework of a specific control plan to complement the action of the AICA in the control of the existence of written contracts and their content.
- The Ministry undertakes to relaunch the Chain Observatory, updating the margin studies of the main products. It will publish indexes that can be used to establish production costs in contracts.
- In the next few days, the formal processing of the transposition of the Directive of Unfair Commercial Practices will begin to modify the Law of the Chain in those aspects that have not been modified by the emergency route, which will allow to extend its scope, prohibit new unfair commercial practices and include good practices in the articles that until now were of voluntary application.
- In the field of agricultural insurance, the budget destined to subsidize the agricultural insurance premium in the General State Budget of 2020 will be substantially increased.
- The Government undertakes to continue defending the maintenance of the budget of the CAP in the negotiations of the new budget of the European Union for the period 2021-2027.
- The Government, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, will urgently process two aid lines, amounting to 60 million euros for the installation of renewable energy sources in agriculture and livestock, as well as for the application of energy efficiency measures in irrigation and agricultural facilities.
- The Government is committed to maintaining the system of taxation by modules in agriculture throughout the legislature.
- The Government is committed to maintaining agricultural diesel bonuses throughout the legislature.
- The taxation of the aid to the first installation of young farmers that was made in a single payment, happens to be paid in four years (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- The Government will establish measures of access to credit for the agricultural and livestock sectors, by means of aid for the financing of guarantees through the State Corporation of Agrarian Surety (SAECA).
- Bonus of the business quota for the transformation of temporary contracts in the agricultural sector to fixed or discontinuous fixed (Royal Decree Law 5/2020, of February 25).
- The Government undertakes to demand the application with the utmost rigor, the Community regulations on imports of agricultural products into the European Union. Respect for ticket prices, import quotas, as well as certification and phytosanitary control.
- The Government is committed to promoting irrigation policy, as an inalienable policy, prioritizing the modernization of irrigation based on efficiency and sustainability.
- The Ministry will carry out a communication and information campaign to bring citizens closer to the productive reality of the field and the dignity of their professionals' work.
A wide package of measures that respond to the demands raised. Planas stressed that from now on these issues will be outlined in the framework of the Agricultural Advisory Committee, the usual interlocution body between Government and agricultural professional organizations. "Dialogue and work that will continue during the next four years of the legislature," said the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
