The Free Agrarian Platform of the Canary Islands requests that in the next revision of the Community Support Program for Agricultural Production in the Canary Islands (POSEI) an increase of 20 cents per kilo be established in favor of the marketed productions of the non-capital islands, in order to ensure that all Canarian farmers "have a similar profitability from the sale of their crops."
This occurs because, according to the agricultural union, there is a "comparative offense" due to the current regulation of the POSEI, since it establishes a fixed amount per kilo marketed "without taking into account the island of origin and the type of crop".
From PALCA they point out that it must be kept in mind that "irrigated farms do not have the same yield as dry land farms." "In Lanzarote, many of the plots, both sandblasted and jable, are cultivated in dry land, where the harvests not only depend on the rain but are also always smaller," they point out.
In addition, they also point out that this POSEI compensation does not adequately weigh the insular reality of the Canary Islands, since it does not cost the same to produce in the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria as it does in El Hierro, La Gomera, La Palma, Fuerteventura or Lanzarote. They point out that the costs are higher "for the farmers of these islands when having to buy fertilizers, machinery, boxes and other supplies that the agricultural activity requires at a more expensive price". PALCA points out that all this is a consequence "of the double insularity that we suffer in our territory."
On the other hand, the agricultural union also points out that transportation is "another burden for the farmers of the non-capital islands", since the main food chains and distribution centers (Mercatenerife and Mercalaspalmas) "are located in Gran Canaria or Tenerife", which forces farmers from the other islands to have to transfer their crops to these centers in order to sell them.
Prices to transfer product from Lanzarote to the capital islands
From PALCA they point out that the cost to transfer sweet potatoes or onions from Lanzarote to Gran Canaria or Tenerife is, up to 200 kilos, 25 or 35 cents, while to Tenerife it has a rate of 35 or 50 cents.
The amount is reduced when they exceed 200 kilos, since to Gran Canaria it is about 10 and 14 cents while to Tenerife it ranges between 12 and 15 cents.
In this sense, from PALCA they point out that it could be said that to compensate for these expenses "there is aid for inter-island transport of goods" although the reality is that it is charged "with much delay and never for one hundred percent of the expense generated."
They also point out that on most occasions the goods "go in groupage", which prevents, when shipments are small, "individualizing the freights and port fees of the transport carried out by each farmer", so they are deprived of the possibility of being able to claim them.
From PALCA they demand that the previous considerations should force the Government of the Canary Islands to establish "a corrective measure, which balances the current differential in production costs existing between Canarian farmers, depending on which island their farm is located and the type of crop practiced."
"Public administrations are obliged to provide identical means of production to all Canarian farmers, if we aspire to improve our insular levels of food sovereignty and self-sufficiency," they point out from the agricultural union.
