The main agricultural organizations in Spain maintain the call for protests after the meeting held this Friday with the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, in Madrid. Asaja, Coag and UPA have organized mobilizations throughout February to demand improvements in the primary sector, thus joining the wave of protests sweeping Europe and which has had a great following in France.
"The sector is going to be on the streets next week and throughout the month to demand our jobs, our profession and to demand this agriculture that we have always done well and now they don't let us do it," said the vice president of Asaja, José Manuel Cebollada, at the end of the meeting. Members of the Union of Unions union gathered at the doors of the ministry and regretted not having been included in the meeting.
Protests are planned in several autonomous communities and on different days. Some promoted by the aforementioned groups and others by alternative sectors of diverse political ideology. As a whole, the agricultural sector demands an "ambitious" shock plan that includes measures both at the European level and by the Government of Spain and the autonomous communities to address the consequences of the drought and the war in Ukraine, prices and production costs, demand simplification and flexibility of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as a review of environmental requirements.
"We are facing the perfect storm with the drought, with prices and with this common agricultural policy that prioritizes the environment more than the farmer and the rancher," lamented the vice president of Asaja.
"Regulatory suffocation is the most important complaint that can be heard in any corner of Spain and Europe. We ask for the simplification of bureaucracy because it has us suffocated," said the general secretary of Coag, Miguel Padilla. The field also demands action against what it considers "unfair competition" from non-EU countries, which, according to their regret, sell in Europe at lower prices and without meeting the same requirements.
Padilla has also asked for improvements in the application of the Agri-Food Chain law and has complained about the "low price" at the origin of some products. The average prices received by farmers were 50% higher in December 2023 than those they received in 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture. Agricultural income grew, according to Agriculture, by 11.1% in 2023 and stood at 31,931 million euros (historical maximum).
Minister Planas committed to finding solutions to the sector's demands and announced that he will only support those changes in the CAP that are "in line" with the interests of Spanish farmers. His offer, however, has not prevented the mobilizations from continuing.
