Madrid yesterday hosted a massive and historic demonstration in which farmers, ranchers, hunters and many disparate organizations participated, united by discontent towards the policies that affect the rural world and the development of the economic sectors linked to it, such as agriculture and livestock.
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Associations of exporters and irrigators requested changes in the hydrological plans that guarantee water in the productive zones.
The representatives of the Association of Producers-Exporters of Fruits and Vegetables of the Region of Murcia (Proexport), together with the irrigators, demanded, yesterday, in Madrid, hydrological plans adapted to the future of the agricultural sector that ensure water for irrigation and guarantee food production, with more investments for modifications in irrigation.
In the case of Murcia, a community from which 20% of Spanish fruit and vegetable exports come from, the maintenance of the Tajo-Segura transfer is essential to sustain productive activity
Among the demands of the demonstration included in the 'Manifesto in defense of agriculture and livestock, hunting, our countryside and its culture and traditions', Proexport, especially highlights a control of imports so that they comply with current regulations in within the European Union, so as to avoid unfair competition with third countries. It also highlights a shock plan to the increase in agricultural production costs.
The fruit and vegetable sector also considers essential modifications in the recent labor reform that has not taken into account the special needs of agricultural activity, such as seasonality in hiring (inevitably necessary, according to the characteristics of agricultural production ); or the strong increase in costs that the rise in the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) entails.
Together with Proexport, the Huelva Association of strawberry producers and exporters, Freshuelva, both associations integrated in FEPEX, supported yesterday's demonstration in Madrid.
Freshuelva has defended the need to "dignify" the figure of farmers, who, like the producers of red fruits, "work hard to feed the whole of Europe and do so even in the most complicated situations, such as those we have recently experienced in the pandemic, to which are now added the economic difficulties derived from disproportionate increases in costs that cannot be passed on to the product.
The demonstration was convened by the agricultural organizations ASAJA, COAG and UPA, the Agro-food Cooperatives, the Spanish Federation of Irrigation Confederations, Fenacore, the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC), the National Hunting Office (ONC), Alianza Rural and the Union of Breeders of the Fighting Bull (UCTL). ■