The Government of the Canary Islands has defended in a meeting of specialists on the application of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Brussels the need to update the financial sheet of the Community Support Program for Agricultural Production in the Canary Islands (POSEI), that is, more budget, to face the increase in costs faced by farms on the islands, which exceed 40% of the Spanish total.
This difference is more pronounced in the section of salaries and social charges, so that this concept represents for the Canary Islands farms 37.5% of the total costs compared to 17.1% for Spanish farms.
The Minister of the branch, Narvay Quinter, has presented to representatives of the Directorate General of Agriculture of the European Commission, the ORs of France and Portugal, and the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union (REPER), the preliminary results of a study on the socioeconomic impact of this aid program in the agricultural and livestock sector of the Canary Islands.
The report shows that total costs per farm grow significantly for all farm sizes on the islands and to a greater extent than the rest of the State according to data from the National Agricultural Accounting Network (RECAN) for the period 2009-2022.
Also, while the average total costs have followed an upward trend in the last four years, the net income per farm has had a flatter behavior.
In this sense, the head of the area explained that this increase in costs leads to a loss of profitability of companies in the sector and consequently of agricultural area, the number of farms, activity and production capacity, "a trend of decline of the agricultural system that will remain if Europe's economic support is not reinforced through POSEI, whose economic allocation has not undergone any update for almost two decades while costs continue to increase."
During the meeting, the representatives of the regional Executive also claimed the determining role played by the primary sector of the islands to ensure healthy food and quality from local productions, to preserve biodiversity thus contributing to the fight against climate change, to fix the population in rural areas, and as a tourist resource from agricultural landscapes and local gastronomy.
"The agricultural sector can also be an important source of employment for migrants and, therefore, a way of integration given the need for labor that requires," added Quintero.
Other issues raised by the Minister and his team was the need to incorporate mirror clauses in trade agreements with third countries, "especially in aspects related to the use of plant protection products, welfare and health" and the increase in tariffs on imports to address unfair competition and compensate for the higher production costs faced by European products.
Costs rise and income falls
Based on data from the Statistics Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty and from the perspective of agricultural products, this text includes a sharp increase in costs per hectare and per kilogram between 2019 and 2024, which translates into an increase of 38% in the case of vegetables and tubers, 33.5% in bananas and 28.2% if we look at fruit trees.
This report also highlights the constant increase in intermediate consumption in the Canary Islands (by 108% in the 2005-2023 timeframe), which grows more than production and agricultural income; and based on data from the Ministry shows that agricultural income in 2023 represented 89% of the income in 2007.