The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, has sent an official letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty of the Government of the Canary Islands requesting that winegrowers of the island be exempt from the minimum yield requirement of 400 kilos per hectare in the 2025 campaign of Action I.3 Aid per hectare for the maintenance of vines destined for the production of wines with Protected Designation of Origin (D.O.P) provided for in the POSEI.
The request is based on the drastic reduction of the island's harvest this year 2025, which already reaches losses of more than 60% due to poor budding and high temperatures, according to data collected by the Cabildo.
“It is our duty to stand by the winegrowers, whether they are professionals or not, because we are talking not only about agricultural economy, but also about a crop that in Lanzarote is also identity, heritage and landscape conservation”, Oswaldo Betancort highlighted. “The exceptional situation that the island's vineyard is going through requires sensitivity and institutional commitment. We cannot allow that, in addition to suffering a historical decrease in production, our winegrowers are penalized in accessing aid that is vital for their sustenance”.
The island's president has also remarked, "the importance of this request being processed urgently, since the POSEI framework itself contemplates the possibility of applying this exception at the discretion of the aid's investigating body". Likewise, he recalled that "the Cabildo of Lanzarote will provide in January the annual report regarding the incidents and damages produced on agricultural productions, a document that will support with technical data the requested exceptionality".
Betancort trusts in the “sensitivity and commitment” of the regional Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sovereignty, Narvay Quintero, to attend to this request that affects a strategic sector in Lanzarote. “I am convinced that the Government of the Canary Islands will understand the dimension of this problem and will argue a measure of justice for those who keep alive a unique agricultural landscape thanks to the cultivation of a grape of world quality”, he concludes.
With this and other measures executed in recent months, from the Cabildo of Lanzarote they highlight "their commitment to the interests of the island's countryside to guarantee the continuity of a crop that, beyond its economic value, constitutes one of the pillars of the island's cultural and landscape identity".