HE Food Chain Observatory A body affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture, which aims to establish a balance between the links involved in the farm-to-table process, will meet on Wednesday, February 14, accompanied by protests from Spanish farmers. Certainly, one of the first issues that the protesters condemn is the systematic failure to comply with this regulation, which has been in force since 2021 and whose rules include “public rules”. manufacturers can sell lossless type.
This is a regular meeting Characteristics of the organization correspond to this period, as food general manager José Miguel Herrero explained this week. The Food Chain Observatory is part of the plenary session. agricultural organizations -Asaja, COAG and UPA- and agri-food cooperatives Spanish National Federation Fishing Guilds and Spanish Federation Food and Beverage Industries (FIAB). Wholesale and retail organizations from different sub-sectors and consumer organizations are also represented, as are the National Association of Large Distribution Companies (Anged) and the Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-Service and Supermarkets (Asedas).
Herrero, who attended a conference on food prices on Thursday, assures that the food chain law is “completed”, although the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez has committed to strengthening the law also this week. Inside Spain has a “very competitive chain.” Reminding that the law itself provides different tools, the general manager says that there are no widespread abuse practices: complaintsAgainst practices that violate the above-mentioned rules, such as selling at a loss. However, agricultural unions have been arguing for some time that, beyond sanctions, “the ministry should start by determining the criteria that will determine what the production costs are and ensure that the prices received by the farmer, that is, the origin price, are reasonable.” live”, defends the Unió de Pagesos (UP) union. They add that they demand that the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) act with ex officio inspections in cases where “prices are abnormally low, as in the case of lemons”.
Climate Action Minister David Mascort also sees some gaps in the law. “This cost is the first thing a distributor needs to know to know that he is not buying a product below its cost,” Mascort said in an interview with TVE in Catalonia this Friday. He gave the example of milk currently produced at a cost of 0.38 euros per liter “but this is something we know in Catalonia because we have done a study on milk and some other productions.”
Both cooperatives, industry and distribution indicate that the global crisis is escalating. unprecedented food inflation. It is said that there is a direct relationship between climatic conditions and prices in the example of olive oil, whose production in Spain has been well below the usual figures for two seasons.