Spain: Canary Is. government suggests payments every six months to banana producers

Tholen – The Counsellor of Agriculture from the Government of the Canary Islands, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, wants that the EU Commission allows payments to producers (including the so-called POSEI: “Programme d'Options Spécifiques à l'Èloignement et l'Insularité") to be made every six months, instead of the current unique annual payment. The banana growers from Europe receive supplementary payments to sustain their competitiveness at the European market. The suggestion is based on the profound crisis of the banana sector at the Canary Islands where the prices in some cases were under the costs of production.

The Counsellor said that for this year the EU Commission approved an unique payment of € 141 million but it will allow that half of the payments be made after the 16 October and the following payment the 30 June 2008. The Department of Agriculture of the Canary Islands wants that the payment even has a shorter periodicity of two months.

Publication date: March 29 2007
Author: Jahir Lombana
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