"There is no indication at this time to suggest the closure of any winery." This is how the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has spoken after the letter sent to the Corporation by a businessman linked to Juan Francisco Rosa, who has requested the closure of all the wineries in La Geria.
In his request, Antonio Curbelo alleged that they are all in a similar situation to the Stratvs winery, closed by court order, regarding the treatment of wastewater. However, San Ginés maintains that there are no reasons to adopt this measure with the rest of the facilities in La Geria.
In the case of Stratvs, in addition to another long list of illegalities that are being investigated in the criminal case opened for its construction, there are also alleged crimes against the environment. The Cabildo itself had a report for years in which it warned of "a high degree of contamination" due to the filtering of wastewater, but it did not act or carry out subsequent controls, until finally the Justice Department ordered the closure of the winery last December.
After the adoption of this precautionary measure, Antonio Curbelo himself went to the Prosecutor's Office to denounce the rest of the wineries, and later took his complaint directly to the Court, intending to point to an alleged double standard. Curbelo Robayna has been a partner, director or administrator in several companies together with Juan Francisco Rosa.
All the grapes will be absorbed by the rest of the wineries
On the other hand, Pedro San Ginés has confirmed that the closure of Stratvs will not affect the purchase of grapes in Lanzarote, since the rest of the wineries will absorb the entire harvest, including that of the farmers who in previous years sold to Stratvs.
In this regard, the Minister of Agriculture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Francisco Fabelo, expressed his satisfaction for "the reassuring message that we can send to the winegrowers of Lanzarote" after the meeting he held this Tuesday with representatives of six wineries located in La Geria: El Grifo, Rubicón, Los Bermejos, Vega de Yuco, La Florida and La Geria. "The winemakers have expressed their willingness to assume all the grapes that are harvested this year on the island, which according to current calculations may be between 2.2 million and 2.4 million kilos, and will be of very high quality," added Fabelo.
The counselor advanced that "the prices paid per kilo of grapes may be maintained with respect to those of last year", in which the winegrowers charged an average of 1.8 euros for each kilo of white grapes sold and 1.5 euros for the rest of the varieties. In fact, the Wine Technical Board foresees "a good harvest" for this year's harvest, "although with some delay".
On the other hand, during the meeting held in the Cabildo, the Deputy Minister of Territorial Policy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mario Pérez, contacted those present by telephone to inform them that the Regional Executive plans to take the final approval of the Special Plan of La Geria to the Commission for Territorial Planning and the Environment of the Canary Islands (Cotmac) this July. This final approval will allow, explained Fabelo, "that in September the procedures can be started to approve the specific modification of this Plan".
