War potatoes.

CONSUMERS, PRODUCERS AND OPPOSITION HAVE DENOUNCED WHAT THEY CONSIDER A CAMPAIGN “FROM OFFICE TO MARKET”.

It all started when the Minister of Agriculture of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria presented the campaign “Choose potatoes from Gran Canaria, from the ground to your table”, in which the representation of producers and consumers was not present, a fact that heated the atmosphere of the potato and led to criticism from them and the opposition.

The voices.

The Consumers Union of Las Palmas considers that the campaign is “just a marketing operation designed in the offices, not in the field” and predicted that the agreement promoted by the Cabildo “will not reduce the price in the markets because intermediaries are being considered, not on farmers or buyers”.

The manager of the Consumers Union, José Manuel Quesada, criticized that the Minister of Agriculture, Fernando Banyoles, exclude growers and consumers from the potato pact, who were the protagonists of the previous campaigns: “we have not received the slightest invitation to participate in that agreement, but intermediaries and importers are present; that more than a campaign is an anti-consumer lobby”, Quesada indicated.

COAG Canarias has been much more blunt in its criticism. Your island secretary, Juan Hernandez, stated that “the Minister of Agriculture of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria should resign if he has any dignity left to sign an agreement with the largest importer of potatoes in the Canary Islands”.

So things, COAG does not understand how the agriculture counselor reaches an agreement that does not benefit anyone; exclusively to Copacan which is the largest importer of potatoes from Israel, Cyprus etc. “that is to say, with the same ones who are killing and burying us ”declared Hernández.

Juan Hernández creates a "crime" that the Minister of Agriculture “go it alone and agree a price of 30 cents per kg., a quantity of 13 cents below the cost of production which is 43 euro cents.” The insular secretary of COAG added that “this man has appeared in the press throwing flowers talking about promoting the Canarian potato, when COPACAN and the other importers have already finished the campaign and have bought all the potatoes, which are already stored in the chambers and will soon come out with a ‘canarian potato label’ for which consumers will pay 1,20 EUR.

On the other hand, the socialist party through its deputy speaker in the Cabildo, Augusto Hidalgo, They pointed out that the campaign "sows doubts of all kinds" because Banyolas initiates the talks "without bringing to the table the most representative agrarian organizations in the sector, nor to consumer and user organizations ”. The potato campaign "only serves the interests of intermediaries and importers, on the other hand legitimate, but they do not correspond to the initial objectives of these campaigns ”, he said.

The PSC explains that these campaigns guaranteed the marketing and promotion of the 'potato of the country' at a fair price for the farmer, while delivering the product to consumers with the guarantees of the distribution chains, who were involved in the campaign, "And with the affordable prices that provide the passage of the potato from the producer to the consumer almost directly".

After criticism, the representatives of the potato distributors of Las Palmas categorically rejected the existence of a pact on the price to pay to the farmers, that it has been naturally regulated by the market and that the only agreement that has been reached was to promote the country's preferential consumption of potatoes over import.

The representatives of the distributors in voice of the Association of Distributors of Seed Potatoes and Consumption of Las Palmas, Adipa, an association that is in the process of constitution,ensures that the collaboration agreement has been made with the approximate participation of the 95% of organized farmers in Gran Canaria.

From Adipa they affirm that this collaboration agreement materialized in the campaign, it will be a benefit for the sector, something that, at your judgment, did not happen with the agreement signed in 2009, that they described as dilapidated because it gave negative results to the primary sector in Gran Canaria.

The bell.

This is the dissemination in local media and the distribution of 1.000 posters and 20.000 brochures between the main food shopping areas and municipal markets with the slogan ‘Choose potatoes from Gran Canaria. From the ground to your table.

In the campaign presentation act, In addition to the Minister of Agriculture, there was also the manager of Copacan Canarias, Ricardo Domínguez, on behalf of the island's potato producers, as well as, of those responsible for the main distribution chains, food surfaces and municipal markets that have been added to the initiative.
The accessions have been those of Mercalaspalmas, Central Market, Vegueta Market, Port Market, Altavista Market, Telde Market, The English Court, Alcampo, Spar, Eroski, Carrefour, Hyperdino, Bolaños hypermarkets, Makro and Mercadona, Hermes, Day Supermarkets and Bolaños Supermarkets.

The hot potato is already served.