The Popular Party candidate for Congress for the province of Las Palmas, Guillermo Mariscal, held a meeting with representatives of the Lanzarote Tourism Federation this Thursday to analyze the situation of the sector and also present the proposals of the Popular Party in this matter.
In the meeting, which was also attended by the president of the Popular Party, Ástrid Pérez, and the candidates for Congress and Senate, Francisco Cabrera and Joel Delgado, respectively, Mariscal reiterated the need to expand measures to alleviate the effects of the collapse of the tour operator Thomas Cook, highlighting the amendments presented by the Popular Parliamentary Group to the Bill of the Sánchez government, which will be debated before the new Congress of Deputies is constituted.
In this sense, the head of the list to Congress highlighted the 100 percent bonus of airport taxes in the airports of the islands for one year to make them more competitive compared to other destinations and favor a reduction in prices for travelers.
As a second important measure, the Popular Party has included the extension of the bonus of Social Security contributions to any type of indefinite contract, and to the transport, distribution and trade activities linked to the tourism sector, in addition to the extension of the amount of aid, which for the Canary Islands would mean going from 15 to 30 million euros.
Highlighting the work of small local producers
During his stay on the island, Guillermo Mariscal also wanted to visit the jable area to learn about the conditions in which sweet potatoes are grown and produced, highlighting the "great work" carried out by farmers "in an apparently hostile environment" and the work being carried out by the "El Jable" Agricultural Transformation Society.
In this sense, he has advanced that within the proposals of the Popular Party for the primary sector is the creation of a value chain law to align agricultural and livestock producers with processing and marketing companies "and ensure that this relationship is fair, because right now it is not." "It is essential that small producers know how to adapt to the new needs demanded by customers," he said.
The candidate for Congress also highlighted as a second line of work the implementation of a plan to increase the size of the industries in the primary sector. "It happens that farmers, as is the case with sweet potato cultivation in jable, are small family businesses, with little dimension and that prevents them from exporting and having a strong treatment with respect to large consumers and large suppliers of this type of products," said Guillermo Mariscal.
In this regard, the PP recalls that in 2014, at the request of the deputy Francisco Cabrera, the Agriculture Committee unanimously approved a non-legal proposition to protect and promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes.
