THE CALCULATION OF THE COST OF SHIPPING OF TOMATOES TO EUROPE IS THE AXIS OF DISCORD.

The last day 17 January was celebrated, in the room of the contentious administrative, second section of the TSJC, the view of the filing of appeal of balsamic, why a previous judgment condemning it to reinstate 8,5 million euros which claimed it the Government delegation concerning aid for the transport of the year 2.002.

Since the beginning of the claim, the Provincial Association of tomatoes Cosecheros-Exportadores of Tenerife, ACETO, He has demonstrated and defended the right justification and use of aid, strictly conforming to the Royal Decree 199/2000.

ACETO, together with the Federation of fruit and vegetable exporters in Las Palmas, FEDEX, It has shown at all times that the valuation of the cost of shipping of tomatoes to Europe cannot be four cents more than to Cadiz, as claimed by the Government.

In this sense, RD 199/2000 It regulated the payment of the subsidy to the transportation of the Canary Islands, clearly States in his article 3, that the tomatoes exported to the rest of the countries of the European Union by sea will receive compensation of up to the 33% the cost of transport, limited such compensation, in any case at the cost of the theoretical freight between the Canary Islands and Cadiz and the port charges.

According to the delegation of the Government, based on the report of EDEI consultants, sets it the maximum for the journey Canarias-peninsula cost in 11,29 of the old pesetas, while transporting to Europe sets it in 12,44, i.e., a difference of1,15 pesetas/kgr for a journey that triples the distance to Peninsula.

Both Balsamic and FEDEX defend that it has not been considered the criterion of proportionality to establish this calculation, Since, all lights, There can be a so little difference in cost between a way of 703 miles (Canarias-Cadiz) and another of 1.776 miles (Canary Islands-Rotterdam).

The report is based on the General intervention of the administration of the State, IGAE, It also takes into consideration the perishable nature of fruit that must be transported in conditions of constant cold between 8 - 9 ° C and at a stipulated time, performing its calculations as if they travel in dry containers.

In this same line, ACETO rejected that report the IGAE, to check the reasonableness of the costs provided, It compared the cost of transportation with the freight charges to the Regional Federation Fedex Aceto services paid to independent shipping companies, whose vessels, When you scale in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria every fifteen days, they offered a reduced freight to transport refrigerated containers to the EU.

The Manager of balsamic, Domingo Mendoza, He told Agroaldea at the end of the view, that is absurd and totally disproportionate the stance of the administration of the State before the data provided, confusing the concept of freight transport of wayward, even when it has been shown that the reports that has been based for their evaluation, they are not adapted to the needs of the sector of the tomato.

In celebration of the view, the representative of the consignee Hamilton & CIA., Pedro Suárez, He acknowledged that the service that lent their ship to Canarian exporters was superior to which both institutions decided to hire to reduce costs, thus confirming the thesis of minimization of expenses for these.

Mendoza insists that since ACETO I ratify the justification of the transport subsidy, to find a solution economically more beneficial to both parties as well as a demonstration of the more efficient use of resources.

There is a lower price for the transfer of the tomato to Europe in conditions requiring this, you would not understand that Balsamic and FEDEX have continued with this via sending fruit to Europe, taking into account the increase in costs assumed in the last decade, said Domingo Mendoza.

It is an insolence that a body of this caliber wonder a basic accounting which puts at stake its own mode of subsistence, He said the Manager of balsamic.

Today, more than ever, waiting for the decision of the Court, the future of the Canarian tomato export, that depend on the thousands of direct and indirect jobs generated by the activity, has the die cast.