This and other topics were addressed at the agricultural meeting held in Fraga to discuss the problems of the sector
The Fraga City Council held a working meeting this Wednesday morning with representatives from the agricultural sector of the Bajo Cinca region. Mayor Ignacio Gramún, Councilor for Agriculture Verónica Alins, and the Director General of Food Innovation for the Government of Aragon, Juan José Orriés, met with various stakeholders in the local agribusiness, who outlined the current challenges facing the fruit-growing sector.
The mayor of the capital of Bajo Cinca explained that, in addition to conveying the concerns of the sector, "we have discussed many factors, such as the food chain, agricultural insurance, the possibility of establishing a Designation of Origin or a PGI in our area, and we have also agreed to meet in March to finalize all these points."
Regarding the Ministry of Agriculture's proposals to address the current situation, Gramún commented that "the agricultural sector is very demoralized, and we need to see how all these proposals materialize." "Words are all well and good, but the agricultural sector needs to move from words to action. These proposals, given the current crisis facing the sector, are insufficient," he said.
Finally, the mayor commented that, “if you listen to all those gurus and visionaries, it seems there’s no place for the small, traditional farmer. I have an obligation to say that it’s good for traditional farms to survive because, after all, they perform a social function and maintain the land.” “I would like all these meetings to help us, together, to maintain small, traditional farms,” Gramún concluded.
For his part, the head of Food Innovation at the DGA expressed his satisfaction with this first meeting, stating that "we addressed all the issues I felt were necessary to address, because they are very complex issues where everyone's opinions matter, and the important thing is that the sector expresses them and, from there, we can find some solutions."
“The sector is asking for many things, and all of them are right, because it is a combination of circumstances that have accumulated over the years and now we have to find a solution because the situation is critical,” Orriés stated, indicating that “the first thing we have been discussing is the issue of personnel, a staff that is increasingly scarce, less trained and with significant limitations imposed by the labor inspectorate.”
Regarding bureaucracy, Orriés lamented that it is "a very broad issue, because there is a lot of it; the number of orders and regulations is tremendous, but it is a problem that comes from Europe, and the only thing we can do from the local level is try not to create more, but we have to address the discussion in Europe to try to ensure that all those regulations that come from Europe are not as complicated as they are."
Finally, the Councillor for Agriculture explained that the aim was "to share all the problems facing the sector" and praised the working group as a "very productive meeting, very well received by the sector's representatives." She also pointed out that "we must promote a culture of consuming fruit from our region and raise awareness about checking product labels to support Spanish farmers."
