Lanzarote's farmers will continue this year selling their milk to Mercocanaria in the absence of an island cheese factory that, according to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock, Pilar Merino, could be launched before the end of 2008, for which the Government of the Canary Islands will contribute 100,000 euros.
For the moment and until the cheese factory becomes a reality, the Ministry has renewed for another year the contract it had with Mercocanaria to acquire the milk from Lanzarote's goats, increasing the price of the liter by 0.02 euro cents and another 0.001 cents more contributed by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, so that the liter of milk is now sold at 0.51 cents, three more than before.
But this increase is still insufficient for the sector, which has no other option than to sell its milk even suffering losses. "There is no other way out, if you are interested, good, and if not, you remove the goats", says Julio César Rodríguez, a farmer from Los Valles.
Those who still keep livestock are overwhelmed by the prices of cereals with which to feed the animals, which, although they have stopped rising dramatically, as at the end of last summer, continue to increase their prices. To this factor is added the economic recession of recent months, which, according to farmers, also affects them. "The losses are continuous and this cannot be. The livestock here is going to disappear".
No hope for the future cheese factory
For the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pilar Merino, the renewal of the contract with Mercocanaria "is transitional" until the island cheese factory comes into operation. "We are going to get fully involved with the Cabildo", Merino assured, "we have 100,000 euros in our budgets to launch the cheese factory and our goal is that it will be this year". But the farmer Julio César, while taking his goats out, as every morning through the fields of Los Valles, is clear about it. "I will believe it when I see it open" he says.
The Minister went further and spoke of the possibility that, once the cheese factory is open, Lanzarote's cheeses can opt to have their own designation of origin "thanks to their great quality", she said. A designation that for Julio César "could be achieved, if they want, in a month".
So, tired of waiting and of some politicians who he thinks "only look at their interests and not those of livestock and agriculture", Julio César has decided to create his own artisanal cheese factory, despite the problems he encounters due to the Island Plan for Land Management (PIOT), pending revision. "I am clear about it, I am setting one up. Why are there some in Tenerife, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Fuerteventura and not here?" he laments.
