What would you think if you were offered a business with profits of 200% or more on each product? Well, yes, there are such things. That is the price that most consumers in the Canary Islands pay for fresh products. But don't think that we are enriching our farmers and ranchers, no. They often do not cover the expense or investment they have to make to get the primary sector of the economy off the ground, what happens is that there are many hands in between.
Most of the sales, family businesses or small companies dedicated to groceries work with high prices due to intermediaries. This is how they pay for transportation and distribution to their business. Better not to ask ourselves what happens in the large stores and multinationals that also work in the food industry, because with these we must consider that they have their own means of transport and there are times when they buy complete productions.
The ranchers of the Canary Islands affirm that they sell at 20% of the price that we consumers see in the markets, that is, the ranchers sell at a fifth of what we pay for the meat. Sometimes they do it charging below the expense that it has meant to maintain the head of cattle, but when we consume a veal from the country we are paying for 5 animals.
The same happens with vegetables. According to COAG (Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers of the Canary Islands) the Origin-Destination Price Index, or in other words, the difference between what is paid to farmers and the price paid by the consumer is about 2.5. It is multiplied by 2.5 in the market. That is, more than double the value given by the farmer or rancher, sometimes up to 5 times more.
Logically, there should be longer queues in the farmers' markets than in the clothing multinationals when the sales start. But there is very little direct business from farmers, even in the aforementioned markets. And the worst thing is that our institutions work more on bringing in surpluses from outside, rewarding them with subsidies, than on giving protection to the farmer, the rancher and the Canarian consumer himself.
Definitely, whether it is to consume our quality at a reasonable price or to continue maintaining local production, we suffer from the minimum nationalist protection that everyone who inhabits this land should enjoy. Meanwhile, for every person on this earth there is a ghost guest sitting at the table.
