Coup on the table of some of the main players in the agri-food chain, with feed producers and Spanish cereal importers at the forefront, with the support of meat companies. Representatives of the main associations of the sector (Asfac, Cesfac, Accoe and Aecec), in addition to the Lonja de Cereals de Barcelona, met this Wednesday to demand an "immediate solution" to the conflict that began more than a year ago between the stevedores and the five stowage companies in the port of Tarragona.
"The situation is critical, the damages are transversal: they affect the small farm, the slaughterhouse, the feed manufacturer and the importers", highlights Diego Pazos, general secretary of the Spanish Association of Foreign Trade of Cereals (Aecec). They denounce en bloc that the "covert strike of the dockers in Tarragona" has doubled the costs of importing cereals in the last year and even threatens to cause a supply problem this summer, with unpredictable consequences for the agri-food sector. “It is a problem of animal feeding, what do we do, do we sacrifice the animals? Are we depleting the meat market in the middle of summer, with the boom in tourism?" warns Xavier Solanes, vice president of the Catalan Association of Compound Food Manufacturers (Asfac).
July and August will be key to the massive arrival of ships loaded with grain to Tarragona, a strategic port for the Catalan and Aragonese livestock sector. Importation is the only response to one of the worst cereal harvests in recent decades due to drought. It is estimated that domestic production will respond to only 25% of the demand.
The peak of imports will coincide in summer, in a kind of perfect storm. The stowage conflict in Tarragona, caused by the liberalization of the sector, is causing delays of up to ten days in the unloading of grain vessels. The longer waiting time increases costs and has even caused part of the traffic to be diverted to other ports.
Given the chronification of the conflict, with the 130 stevedores making an unprecedented pulse to the five companies in the sector in Tarragona, those affected demand urgent action from the Spanish Government. They also request the involvement of the Tarragona Port Authority, which has been in contact with the different parties for a year to mediate.
“We are suffering the consequences of disastrous management for so many years, with a passivity of the administration, while the sector pays unsustainable costs. We demand an imminent solution to the stowage conflict”, says Solanes. Cereal importers and feed producers, vital for the meat industry, as well as milk and egg producers, warn of an unprecedented crisis with consequences for the prices paid by the final consumer.
