In early September, the government of the Canary Islands will convene a meeting of tomato exporters to decide a strategy to deal with the possible consequences of Brexit, given the lack of action on the part of the Spanish Ministries of Agriculture and Development. The compensations that Canary exporters receive to be able to ship their goods and market them in the United Kingdom will cease to be granted when the British leave the European Union (EU) and become a third country.
As reported by José Juan Bonny, president of the Provincial Federation of Associations of Exporters of Fruit and Vegetable Products (Fedex), the aid per hectare (15,000 Euro for each) will no longer be granted, even though almost half of the Canary production is sold in Britain.
In a meeting held with the ministries by a delegation of fruit and vegetable exporters, represented by the Deputy Councilor of the Primary Sector of the Canary Islands Government, Abel Morales, it was requested for the islands to be allowed to keep their aid, based on their status as an outermost region (OR). That is, although the framework that led to the introduction of the subsidies no longer applies, they should be maintained by virtue of the remote situation of producers of the Archipelago and their impossibility of competing in the market.
"The other option was to find out about the contingency plan that the Government of Spain had," says José Juan Bonny. This document exists, but there is a growing fear that the situation of fruit and vegetable exporters in the Archipelago will not be considered.
Despite the increasing restlessness due to the proximity of October 31 (when Brexit will happen), all the sector can do is not to lose hope in the possibility of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson eventually choosing to negotiate the exit with Brussels. "That would give us two years or two and a half years to reconfigure the business," says the president of Fedex.
It is time to sow for the next campaign and there are already companies that have decided to throw in the towel and devote themselves to the domestic market. Others will choose for the alternative of shipping their entire production to the Netherlands and having it "transferred" to Great Britain from there, says Bonny.
Source: eldia.es
