Spain: AVA ASAJA warns that the agreement with Mercosur threatens the stability of the Valencian rice sector
The vice-president of the rice sector of COPA-COGECA -an entity that brings together the agricultural organizations and the European cooperatives- and leader of AVA-ASAJA, Miguel Minguet, has denounced in Brussels that among the proposals that are being debated these days, in the framework of the negotiations with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), is the importation with a reduced tariff of 45,000 tons of rice. A concession to exports of rice from the territories of the aforementioned alliance, which would have very damaging effects on the European rice sector and, by extension, on the Spanish and the Valencian.
Minguet conveyed his concern at a high-level meeting recently held in the EU capital and attended by the Director General of International Trade of the General Directorate of Agriculture of the European Commission, John Clarke, the Secretary General of COPA-COGECA, Pekka Pesonen , and the representatives of the beef and sugar sectors. Products that, together with rice and citrus fruits, are among the most sensitive to the negative consequences that would result from the new trade agreement with Mercosur.
“During the meeting,” explained Miguel Minguet, “we emphasized that it would be a barbarity to favor the entry to Europe of rice originating in the southern cone countries under advantageous conditions because currently the commercial equilibrium in which the rice sector of the EU is very precarious and to sign a pact of these characteristics would contribute to make it jump by the airs“. Indeed, imports by the European Union of rice from Asia, especially Thailand, Cambodia or Vietman, have skyrocketed in recent years driven by the signing of successive trade agreements that for European farmers engaged in rice cultivation represent a unfair competition that is leaving them in an increasingly complicated situation.
Reflection of the delicate situation of the European rice sector is that the prices perceived by Italian producers of this cereal have sunk, a downward trend that is beginning to spread to the rest of the EU countries
In addition, and as regards directly the rice produced in the Valencian Community, it must be borne in mind that most of the Mercosur rice that would arrive in Europe with a reduced tariff under the agreement being negotiated is of the round type (Japonica) ), that is to say, of the same variety that is cultivated in the natural parks of La Albufera and La Marjal Pego-Oliva, so it would rival directly at lower prices.
Minguet: every day the import concessions increase and we face a pinch effect in the market due to the pressure exerted by the Asian rice, especially, but also those from other sources such as Uruguay or the United States
According to the vice-president of the rice sector of COPA-COGECA, “the European Commission has a cynical and hypocritical attitude in this matter because it openly recognizes that we are a sensitive sector and continues to negotiate the signing of new agreements to introduce automobiles and manufactured products in those sectors. countries using agriculture as currency”.
Threat for citrus
But rice is not the only crop that would be seriously harmed in the new agreement with Mercosur, since citrus fruits are also included in the negotiation package. The countries of that area consider it a priority to introduce as much orange juice as possible in Europe at low prices and also encourage the entry of fresh citrus, an aspect that is of particular concern not so much because of the commercial aspect – since they arrive in Europe when here there is no production-, but because of the serious problem it entails for plant health, since these countries are infested with pests as lethal as greening, canker or black spot that could contaminate European citrus.
Source: AVA-ASAJA
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
➡️AVA-ASAJA denounces the passivity of the EU in the face of the proliferation of South African citrus fruits with black spots
