The Minister of Agriculture, José Luis Aguirre, expressed his concern in Les Corts about the increase in European imports of Egyptian oranges. In January, 45,000 of the 51,000 tons of oranges that the EU imported came from Egypt, a 104% increase over the previous year, due to the decrease in local production, conflicts in the Red Sea, and increased production in Egypt.
Aguirre said that the Generalitat has increased inspections in warehouses by 375% to address this issue. He also criticized the European Union for not establishing adequate mechanisms for the entry of products from countries that systematically fail to comply with health safety standards.
The regional minister warned that these imports increase the risk of introducing pests that could cause millions in losses to Valencia's agricultural sector, such as HLB, false moth, and black spot.
He also said the new Consell had been unable to activate the aid for drought and war in Ukraine because the Botànic had not left funds for this purpose. He criticized the Ministry for excluding grapes and olive groves from these aids and stressed that the Valencian Community had been the first entity to request the Ministry to release crisis reserve funds for new aid.
Regarding CAP aid, Aguirre pointed out that the complex system has caused 75.76% of the applications submitted in the Valencian Community to have serious errors. He also said that, up to the beginning of February, they had made payments totaling 54 million euros, i.e. 61% more than in the same period of the previous year. However, he acknowledged that the Community will lose a lot of CAP aid because the European Commission and the Government of Spain don't take into consideration the peculiarities of Valencia's agriculture.
Source: larazon.es