UPA takes stock of 2017 as a dramatic agrarian year, refuting government figures
The Union of Small Farmers (UPA) has described 2017 as a “dramatic year for the field,” due to the drought and inaction that blames the Government, whose macro figures on the sector, highlighting the rise in farm income by 5% for this exercise, they contrast with the negative balance of this agrarian year that the Organization has made.
For UPA, “the reality that suffers the field contradicts the figures of the Government”. And is that the “most serious drought of the century has caused the year 2017 to be described as” dramatic “by Spanish farmers and ranchers. The lack of plans and political measures to face the lack of rainfall has contributed to aggravate its effects and, above all, to fill the farmers with fear and uncertainty, who see how this problem will get worse in the immediate future. UPA has valued losses due to the drought in the sector in more than 3,600 million euros throughout the year.
The agrarian organization UPA believes that “political inaction” has contributed to aggravate the problems generated by the lack of rain
As the agricultural union has proclaimed in a statement, “the figures show that the imbalances in the agri-food chain persist, that farmers and ranchers do not get fair prices and that the supposed increase in national agricultural income does not reach most of the farms ” Thus, on the macro figures made public by the Government, UPA has questioned some data “that do not provide a real vision of what is happening in the field. Of course, 90% of Spanish farms, which are family owned, are not part of that income growth, rather the opposite”, they have criticized.
The most significant example of this imbalance would be the stone fruit, which according to the CPI increased by 10.4% to the consumer, while originally it was only 0.7%, which shows, for UPA, that a change in the Food Chain Law that must be addressed without fail in 2018. “Farmers and ranchers have continued without having fair prices in 2017“.
Lack of initiative
UPA believes that, especially in terms of drought and agri-food chain, the Government has opted to “continue in office”, incurring in a “neglect of functions and scandalous inaction”.
The organization has asked the Executive and the department headed by Isabel García Tejerina to “do their work and begin to solve these problems that concern us all as a society”
In 2017, commercial relations with third countries have continued to mark the lives and expectations of thousands of farmers and ranchers in Spain. Russia’s veto, which remains unresolved, has continued to leave its effects in sectors such as pork and fruit and vegetables. Farmers have also criticized that in agreements such as the CETA, the TTIP or the Mercosur one continue to “play with the food that we produce as a bargaining chip”.
On the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), UPA has ensured that the changes recently approved with the Omnibus Regulation “do not sound bad”, although they confess that “there is uncertainty” until the effects are known, which will be noticed next year.
ACCESS THE COMPLETE REPORT BY SECTORS
Source: UPA
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
➡️UPA urges the Government to take urgent measures against a “historic” drought
