In the past, the Popular Party was the one that capitalized a key vote in Spain: the rural one. Hagaño, is Vox the favorite between farmers and farmers. An electoral niche that has given great joys to Santiago Abascal and in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo He wants to recover lost ground. Hence, the different initiatives that are carrying out, such as the proposition of the law that, as the reason has been able to know, has just registered its group in the Senate and that is entitled: «In support of the Spanish food system as an essential strategic sector of the economy».
The ultimate goal, as it appears in the first article of the text, is: «Provide the agri -food sector for new and more effective instruments that contribute to guarantee its essential strategic character, capable of guaranteeing the supply and food security to the Spanish population, especially in crisis situations, and, therefore, contributing to the sustainability challenges and the guarantee of profitability and future of its farms and companies».
At the beginning of the year, the PP has already registered in the Upper House an agricultural tax initiative, which he agreed with the main employers of the sector. Now, it returns to load with some of the main claims of producers, such as “improving the protection of national production in the face of certain imports from third countries and fluctuations of international markets.” A war song between farmers and ranchers, which every year denounces the arrival of tons of products from other countries, in the case of Morocco, with well -lax safety and environmental standards if compared to the infinity of requirements and obstacles that are required in Spain.
The PP ensures that “the whole of the agri -food sector in our country has been going through in recent years a difficult situation that is putting the viability of many farms and companies and the maintenance in the activity of a significant number of producers.” Hence the need for its “reinforcement, through the application of policies to support the most vulnerable farms and the review of those policies that are not giving the expected result.”
Among all the measures that will land in the upper house by the hand of this rule, the “granting of aid to the holders of agricultural farms in crisis”, with concrete proposals. The most significant: “The Government will annually enable aid for the holders of the agricultural farms of those sectors of crisis to be seriously affected in their economic results, both for high costs of the production factors, and for prices perceived far lower than the normal production costs, which put at risk the sustainability of the farms and their continuity in the production cycle.”
The law urges the Ministry of Agriculture to determine “annually the areas and sectors affected by serious market difficulties” and establish “the regulatory bases for the granting of state aid.”
In tax matters, it is stipulated that “as long as the conditions that involve a risk of cessation of activity due to profitability derived from the excess of production cost,” another very frequent demand within the sector, “the minimum type allowed type of the value added value to the energy and the purchases made by the producers of those products that are used in the agricultural, livestock or forestry activities such as agrarian inputs and rare materials will be applied.
For the “market monitoring and the evaluation of the impact of trade agreements”, there are draft measures: “The monitoring of agrarian markets will be reinforced, to have continuous and permanently updated information of their behavior and trends, in their different links, and the development of commercial exchanges, especially those sectors that can be affected by commercial agreements with third countries. This monitoring will include both economic aspects, as well as those related to the implementation of barriers to exchanges, as well as toilets, especially related to the control of pests and diseases, compliance with contingents and the entry dates established in the agreements with third countries ».
The law also raises solutions “for early detection and monitoring of serious alterations in the operation of the supply chain and agrarian markets”, and addresses the famous agricultural insurance, for which it proposes a reinforcement of the viability of the system; and of the insured, for which protection increases. And, in commercial matters, bets on a “strengthening of the negotiating position of producers in agrarian markets.”
Alicia García defends the agricultural law
Popular spokeswoman in the Senate, Alicia Garcíaensures in statements to this newspaper that “it is necessary to declare the Spanish agri -food sector strategic, to reinforce and ensure the future of agricultural production and agri -food industry.” Key elements in a society that needs to “dispose and have access to food in quantity, quality and price appropriate to your needs and in a uniform and constant way over time.”
As defended, the proposal of the registered law “highlights this need.” And he wonders, to emphasize the importance of the legislative initiative of his group: “Have we once thought about what would happen if we did not have enough food for our society in quantity, quality and adequate price?” Therefore, he insists that this rule adds to the “Agrarian Taxation Law” that seeks to reduce “the tax burden to farmers, ranchers and fishermen.” Then, the PP proposed measures that would mean a “savings of 700 million euros” that would reach “800,000 professionals.”
In that context, Garcia reveals where the following agricultural strategy will go: water. In his opinion, it is essential to “boost the irrigated works that are necessary to ensure food supply.” Especially, in situations of drought “like the one we have lived in recent years.” On the avatars that afflict the agroganad sector, the popular spokeswoman in the Senate highlights a key article of the law that will see the light just around the summer: “that state aid concessions are established for those farms in crisis and at risk of continuity in its activity.” And another one: “Carry out the creation of income stabilization insurance by modifying the current combined agricultural insurance law.”
Faced with the “radical policies of Sánchez”, which “are punishing the Spanish agri -food sector and suffocating it with taxes,” Alicia García defends “protect national agricultural production.” With less “environmental demands”, with a policy that puts the “unfair competition” of third countries, “which are capable of producing at a lower price” for the “high labor costs” in Spain, and ultimately: with less obstacles and “taxes.”