“La Rioja’s Mushroom Sector Seeks Aid Amid Straw Shortage Due to Drought”

LOGROO, 22 (EUROPA PRESS)

The advisor for Agriculture, Livestock, Rural World, Territory and Population, Eva Hita, today participated in the Agricultural Policy Advisory Council for Community Affairs, held telemetically, which was chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas , and in which the situation of agricultural crops and markets before the drought has been addressed, among other matters.

Hita has reiterated the request, already made by the Government of La Rioja to the Ministry of Agriculture, for the mushroom to be considered a strategic sector to receive aid due to its dependence on raw materials, mainly straw, which has registered an increase in price due to the shortage of supply as a result of the drought.

The Minister of Agriculture has forwarded this request, as the Government of La Rioja has already done, among other measures, to alleviate the situation of the agricultural sectors, in this case, the mushroom, in the face of the drought and the rise in input prices.

Hita has indicated that the profitability of the sector depends on its reconversion, adapting the compost plants to phase III, which means modernizing the existing wineries towards a more competitive, productive cultivation and production system that contributes to improving plant health.

The Government of La Rioja reached an agreement in the first quarter of 2023, during various meetings held with the mushroom sector, to draft a Strategic Plan, offering the sector its technical and financial support for its preparation. The objective is to support, thus, the progress towards its reconversion and modernization.

This support is part of the collaboration and continuous contacts that the regional government has maintained with the mushroom sector throughout its cultivation, production, industrialization and marketing chain to promote its conversion, as a strategic sector that is the second largest for La Rioja. agricultural sector in economic importance and generation of jobs in the region, and to provide technical support in matters of plant health that have affected it.