The Government of the Canary Islands is strengthening the 20% increase in subsidies in the Specific Supply Regime (REA) items for livestock feed. The measure will come into effect in January 2025 and will facilitate lowering the prices of raw materials used in the production of animal feed.
Narvay Quintero, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, emphasized that "in 2024, the REA monitoring committee brought forward the approval of the proposals to modify balances and amounts of aid to the month of February in order to optimize the financial sheet available for this year within the maximum increase limit that European regulations allow annually."
With this, the regional government wants to respond to the demand from the sectors to update the aid amounts in the first weeks of the year, in accordance with the increases in the additional costs that are generated in this period. In addition, it also wants to raise the execution levels to 100% of the available budget, currently set at 62 million euros, of which 30.5 million are allocated to products for livestock feed.
"This was the first time that a modification of the REA took place at the beginning of the year, which has had many positive effects for our livestock sector by reducing animal feed costs, which account for a large part of the expenditure of livestock farms on the islands," said Quintero.
Likewise, one of the first measures adopted by the new government team at the beginning of the legislature was a modification for the 2023 campaign that was carried out in July, followed by another carried out in September of the REA balance, which involved, among other changes, an increase in the items for feed. "With this increase we managed to guarantee the economic aid until December 31 at the same levels of aid increased in July, and that the volume was sufficient for the livestock sector to have the necessary food and see their production costs reduced," he said.