The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Òscar Ordeig, chaired a meeting of the Agrarian Table to address the sector's situation. Structural measures will be implemented to improve competitiveness, along with urgent aid for the sectors and territories most affected by drought, increased fuel costs, and price collapses.
Aid will prioritize holdings that demonstrate a significant decrease in production or turnover, as well as a significant increase in costs. Funding will come from contingency funds, agrarian funds, and the Department's own resources.
These new measures complement the 4 million euros allocated to agri-food companies affected by persistent drought and high temperatures, particularly impacting the pear sector, and the effects of the DANA in Baix Ebre and Montsià. They also add to the 5 million euros from the Nuclear Transition Fund (FTN) for modernizing agricultural holdings in the nuclear zones of Ascó and Vandellòs.
Regarding the price crisis, the Agrarian Table will request the European Commission to activate exceptional measures and temporarily suspend rice imports from third countries. It will also ask the European Commission to study additional protection mechanisms for bovine imports in the face of serious market disruptions.
To the Spanish Government, support will be requested to maintain aid for agricultural diesel and to implement additional fiscal measures to reduce production costs. The aim is to make support mechanisms linked to agricultural diesel more attractive and accessible.
The Department has intensified inspections of the food chain, detecting 50 contractual relationships that may breach the law, particularly in grape sales. Controls on grape purchase contracts are being strengthened to ensure balanced commercial relations and prevent abusive practices, especially during the harvest.
The Agrarian Table has also agreed to convene the Code of Good Food Commercial Practices of Catalonia on November 5th, to reinforce the commitment of all agents to balanced and transparent commercial relations.
Measures already activated include access for the wine sector to the ICF Emergencies line to facilitate liquidity. 3.6 million euros have been allocated for green harvesting and 5.4 million for crisis distillation. Furthermore, structural support lines for the wine sector worth over 11 million euros are maintained.
