The well-known ‘pantry of Europe‘, the fruit and vegetable area between Alicante, Murcia and Almería, is on its way to becoming Morocco and South Americaas a consequence of the cuts to transfers from the Tagus to the Segura and the recently signed agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
On both fronts, the agricultural sector responsible to the Government of Pedro Sánchez, by action and omission, respectively, since he shows a determined commitment to closing the tap of the aqueduct for water transfers between basins and, in the case of his role in Brussels, does not demand reciprocity in health regulations for the nutrition with regard to phytosanitary products.
«Aim for the desalination The main resource is to point in the direction of the abandonment of small and medium-sized producers fruit and of vegetables», predicts the president of Asaja-Alicante, José Vicente Andreu. “Only the very large ones with the capacity to impact the high cost of water on their sales will survive and that is a minority,” he adds.
The structural changes for agriculture in this fertile area of the southeast of the peninsula will be dramatic, in his opinion: «In the end, we will have a non-competitive productive system that will be reduced and logically we will depend to eat from Morocco, Türkiye or Brazil, with what this entails loss of sovereignty and freedom.
In the memory of some, it will be remembered how this economic activity in the primary sector reacted during the pandemic to supply the population with food in an extreme situation of need, unlike other products of which there was a shortage due to poor management and they had to resort to distant imports from China and the shortcomings that this caused.
«If there is abandonment of land“There is less demand for water, but not for food, which will have to come from other countries,” is the dire forecast of the spokesman for Asaja. The first direct competitor to benefit from this dynamic is clear. “The vegetables will fundamentally come from Morocco: they already beat us in tomatoes and we will say when ‘blessing the table’: Thank you, Mohamed VI, for these foods that thanks to your generosity we eat today (tomorrow we will see)”, Andreu ironically says.
Also in oil olive This country is advancing at a remarkable pace, the second in Africa with the highest production – only after Tunisia – and the eighth in the world, with a notable growth in the cultivated area, to top it off financed with European funds. Nothing less than 600,000 new trees They are planted in their fields with an injection of 115 million euros contributed from the Old Continent with the support of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez.
«Our citrus fruits will stay on the trees»
The other threat comes from the other side of the Atlantic. “We feed Europeans and to do so we need the same conditions as those who come from outside,” he warned. Asaja in their joint protest with Coag before the Ministry of Agriculture. «With the disloyal Mercosur agreement, one more of the European Union, Spanish and also European agriculture and livestock are sent to ruin: they turn a deaf ear and are going to ensure that our citrus stay on our trees,” said Andreu, in the face of the “massive entry of fruit and vegetable products and meat that does not meet the same quality standards.”
Oranges and lemons, in particular, are in danger because in South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina “under normal conditions, they cover large productions at low costs, since they do not comply with the demanding health regulations and do not need irrigation.”
Likewise, it will be noted in the juice frozen squeezed or concentrated, which will enter without tariffs and can be sold to the consumer at prices much lower than the Spanish one.
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