At the meeting of the Regional Garlic Commission, the president of the National Garlic Board, Julio Bacete, is demanding a definitive solution to the problem of land leasing and basic payment rights, because the tenants "are currently in no man's land, despite the fact that the sector generates a lot of labour in production, handling and added value."
"We cannot continue like this and it should be clarified how things need to be done, from a legal point of view, so that the beneficiaries are the producers," he added.
Bacete pointed out that the National Garlic Board has been demanding this for years because, in their opinion, they are "totally defenceless, since we do not receive any kind of help, unlike the producers of other crops."
He noted that this problem affects more than 3,000 garlic growers in Spain, "who are unable to declare in the CAP how many plots they have leased and are, consequently, not receiving the corresponding aid."
Regarding the integrated production, also addressed during the meeting of the Regional Garlic Commission, Bacete has emphasised that the first assessment was made in 2009, "so it's has been six years and we still have no integrated garlic production," and in recent days, the Council has actually announced that it will regulate all agro-food productions likely to benefit from this production system through a general decree.
Moreover, he also pointed out that the specific regulation for garlic has already been negotiated and should also be ready for publication, although Bacete believes "that if there is no budget and it is not included in the current RDP, there is no use of regulations, so the integrated production will once again be nothing but false promises."
Regarding the 2016/2017 campaign balance, Bacete stated that the report to be presented to the Commission is "very positive, highlighting the good prices recorded and the excellent performance of exports." He points out that the Spanish garlic sector has benefited from the speculative situation of Chinese garlic, which has significantly reduced its international presence due to the high starting prices recorded in the Asian country.
Source: vocesdecuenca.com
