The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has recognized the “concern” of the affected sectors after learning that the new United States Government, led by Joe Biden, does not consider it necessary to modify or amend tariffs on European products, including olive oil and Spanish olives.
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“I understand the concerns of the sector and those affected, but the organization of the new Administration takes a while. I am convinced that in the first European contacts, both by the EC and the bilateral ones of Spain, with the new US Administration . this question will be present and sooner or later we will achieve the elimination of these unfair tariffs“, assured Planas during the presentation of the Tierra de Cajamar platform.
The head of the branch recalled that the publication in the Federal Register (the equivalent of the US BOE) of the United States decision not to review the tariffs currently in force has been known in these days.
“We are in contact with the European Commission, to which I have reiterated the issue, so that between now and August, the date of the next review, and the sooner the better, the elimination of these unfair tariffs can be negotiated with the United States, “he stressed, emphasizing that this topic is a “priority” for Brussels.
On the other hand, Planas has once again reiterated that his Department is working to achieve a “national agreement” for the future application of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Spain, after having emerged in recent weeks “certain information that does not fit to reality”.
“We will achieve the elimination of these unfair tariffs”
“I cannot tolerate that information that does not conform to reality begins to spread, which I want to nip in the bud, because it generates concern in the sector. I want to make a call to everyone’s responsibility. Information is needed, but truthful for this debate takes place in a calm way to reach a great national agreement that is what will benefit farmers and ranchers, “he stressed.
DIGITALIZATION OF THE AGRI-FOOD SECTOR
Planas made these statements during the presentation of the digital platform Tierra, an initiative promoted by Cajamar to address the challenge of digitizing the agri-food sector and which is aimed at professionals.
Tierra was born as an open and participatory community, made up of professionals, farmers and ranchers, cooperatives and food industries, marketers and distribution companies, auxiliary industry, study, research and innovation centers, and technology developers who will work collaboratively to develop new tools that help decision-making for the common good.
Planas has highlighted that initiatives like this “constitute a fundamental piece for the rural environment and agriculture are an active part and protagonist of a global and digitized world “.
The head of Agriculture recalled that his Department is committed to the digitization of the sector, for which two years ago the digitization strategy of the agri-food sector was approved. “We proposed three objectives such as reducing the digital divide, promoting the use of data and promoting business development and new business models,” he said.
In this way, Planas has advanced the launch of a platform, ‘BigMapa’, which aims to be an aggregator of all the data of the agri-food chain to concentrate, classify and allow its exploitation in a transparent way.
For his part, the president of Cajamar, Eduardo Baamonde, explained that the entity takes this step “aware of the challenges and opportunities that the agri-food sector has, forced to evolve and produce more with fewer resources to respond to the growing demand for The world population”.
Baamonde stressed that it is necessary to achieve a “sustainable production, social and environmental model with the ability to generate profitability for all links in the value chain and thus guarantee generational change”.
“Currently, digitization opens up new horizons and above all, it enables universal dissemination that will allow us to take advantage of all innovative experiences much more efficiently “, he explained.
In this way, among the first tools to be launched is a specific one for irrigation and fertilization plans to help calculate irrigation dynamically and effectively, including alerts and notifications.
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