The first Organization of Fruit and Vegetable Producers (OPFH) of Lanzarote is born after this recognition is granted to SAT El Jable. The APOs are associative entities mainly constituted by cooperatives or Agricultural Transformation Societies (SAT) under the community legislation.
These entities are created so that farmers can achieve several objectives, such as planning harvests to bring them to market at the optimal time, all through the necessary programming of crops, guaranteeing the supply to the population by providing sufficient food in both quantity and quality, improving the profitability of farmers by sharing the expenses of agricultural holdings and jointly marketing the harvests, in order to have a greater negotiating capacity before the large distribution chains when setting sale prices.
The company points out that the European Union proposes, through the Common Agricultural Policy, to achieve these objectives by allocating community funds to the implementation of aid lines to favor, on the one hand, the commercialization of farmers and, on the other hand, to obtain the approval of operational plans that contribute to covering the operating costs of the APOs.
"In the visits made to the most important cooperatives and SATs of the Canary Islands, it was found that they all operated as APOs, due to the benefits that cooperating in this way brought them. Given that SAT shares the philosophy of cooperative work as a basic principle, it was decided in assembly and unanimously to request recognition as an APO", they point out from SAT El Jable.
The process followed to achieve this recognition "has presented obstacles that at times seemed insurmountable", although the commitment of a group of farmers has made it possible for an APO from and for Lanzarote to operate for the first time this Thursday.
"At first, the SAT found that it had to meet requirements that, according to the insular agricultural reality, were impossible to meet, since some kilos of crops were required as well as an unattainable number of associates"; they indicate from El Jable.
This situation forced the reform of the state legislation regulating the creation and operation of this type of figures. That is, "it was necessary for the regulations to contemplate the reality of the non-capital islands that present much lower harvest ratios compared to Gran Canaria, Tenerife or even La Palma, islands where a few APOs have been operating quite successfully in each of them", explains SAT El Jable.
"In achieving our claim, the Senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Don Manuel Fajardo Palarea, has had a decisive participation, to whom we will always be grateful and this must be recognized, because he attended to the requests that were made to him, he obtained the support of the senators from the non-capital islands and became involved in the search for a solution, which he achieved by making it possible for the requirements for the constitution of an APO to be graduated and adapted to the reality of islands such as Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Gomera or El Hierro"; they point out from SAT El Jable.
"Finally, at this point we would like to extend our gratitude to the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands for having given us all the facilities for this request to go ahead, by the Vice-Ministry of the Primary Sector a resolution has been issued recognizing SAT El Jable as an Organization of Fruit and Vegetable Producers for the Island of Lanzarote", they conclude from the entity.
