“Very positive” and with the intention of continuing to see each other regularly in order to address the present and the future of a “strategic” sector of “loyalty and dialogue”. This is how the meeting of the President of the Junta de Castilla y León took place and ended,Alfonso Fernandez Manuecor, with the leaders of the professional agricultural organizations within the framework of the cycle that is taking place with the political groups and social representatives in view of the next meeting planned with the head of the Central Executive, Pedro Sánchez, with no date yet set.
And among the demands on which the regional government and the countryside have agreed, the Common Agrarian Policy (CAP). And not only the current one, for which the sector continues to demand changes, but the one that will be applied from 2027. And they are clear that they must start establishing positions now. They are demanding a community policy “who defends the professional family farmer”said the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development after the nearly two-hour meeting, Maria Gonzalez Corral.
The new CAP “must reverse bad policies that harm in Castilla y León” to achieve a “Mediterranean, professional and that once again makes Spain and Europe an agricultural reference”, stressed the president of Asaja in the Community, Donaciano Dujo. A position to which his colleagues have subscribed. The current one, with the green pact, “It made our lives very complicated.”also stressed Lorenzo Riveraof the UPA-COAG Alliance, which is calling for a CAP that is “as lax as possible”.
Faced with this new negotiation, “Spain must have a firm positionand Castilla y León will push from the first moment for this to be beneficial,” the UCCL leader also said. Jesus Manuel Gonzalez Palacinwho also emphasized “reducing environmental requirements and making them more effective, because some are botched.” “We have a lot at stake”warned in order to establish a “community position” in this area that the Council and agricultural organisations want to establish.
Also, among these common issues that “concern us all”, the hydraulic policy, stressed the advisor, so that both the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the hydrographic confederations (in particular of Duero) of Hydrological plans “meet our demands” and “adapt to needs,” with modernization and more irrigation. “Because water is life for agricultural development and livestock,” Corral stressed. And, as agricultural leaders recalled, Castilla y León is one of the communities with the “lowest percentage” of irrigation.
Customs duties on Ukrainian grain
In addition, Mañueco committed to ensuring that the sector advances in the “administrative simplification and streamlining of procedures.
Agrarian organizations have also expressed their concerns to the president. “concern” over “low” grain prices and they have once again demanded the restoration of customs duties on Ukrainian cereals, which they mainly attribute to the collapse of tax rates. In this sense, from the UPA-COAG Alliance, Lorenzo Rivera demanded that the Council “meet” with the flour and feed manufacturers of Castilla y León so that they “give priority” to the purchase of local cereals. “At the endWe will pay for the war in Ukraine, farmers and breeders, especially from Castile and Leon,” Palacín criticized.
And special attention was also requested by the agrarian organizations, to which “animal health”whether they are diseases that livestock have been living with for years, such as tuberculosis, or new diseases, such as epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHE), with an emphasis on wildlife as a vector of transmission.
