Agroaldea
THE PLATFORM FOR THE DEFENSE OF TOMATO DISTRIBUTED TEN THOUSAND KILOS OF TOMATO AMONG THE ATTENDEES AND SEVERAL NGOs.
THE PLATFORM FOR THE DEFENSE OF TOMATO, CANARY ISLANDS FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, formed by the employers of the sector of both provinces, FEDEX y ACETO, the agricultural organizations COAG and ASAJA and the unions SITCA, STU, Coordinator of Aparcería Intersindical Canaria and CC.OO, positively valued the Solidarity Concentration to “save the tomato and vegetable sector”.
More than 3.000 people from the municipalities in the southeast of the island, Gáldar and La Aldea de San Nicolás, as producing areas and as many municipalities, as well as Tenerife and Fuerteventura, in order to show solidarity with the demands of this sector.
With British punctuality, at eleven o'clock, the Platform spokesperson, Gustavo Rodriguez, welcomed and thanked those present for their participation and solidarity in the concentration.
Rodríguez began his address by stating that “we are concentrated here today because the efforts made with administrations or politicians have been of no use. Not the meetings, nor the visits, nor the encounters, nor the multiple documents, neither the participation in motions and even the Non-Law Propositions, have achieved the solution to our very serious situation”.
The spokesperson added: “Our reality is so distressing that unions and employers unequivocally agree, since our goal is common: save the sector. Because we believe in it, in what it represents, at work and above all in dignity, which we are not willing to give up. They will not take it from us”.
Before us, seven brave women from La Aldea tried it, risking their health to achieve a solution that they were denied. Seven long days on hunger strike to reach an agreement that would allow them to continue supporting their families and continue the activity of the sector.
130 years of recent history are in danger of extinction due to the repeated breaches of the Canary Islands and State administrations and, definitely, due to the laziness of our representatives unable to execute the agreements. Our situation is not the result of poor management, how some insist on selling.
[quote]More than 3.000 people from the municipalities in the southeast of the island, Gáldar and La Aldea de San Nicolás, as producing areas and as many municipalities, as well as Tenerife and Fuerteventura.[/quote]
Nor the stubborn reality of the international situation, the new competitors, the increase in costs and the virulence of the pests have been able to with this sector. We have faced these adversities and we have overcome every blow. Instead, politicians with their special ability have made us in danger of extinction through sheer laziness, the spokesperson explained.
We have passed in 15 years of producing 200.000 tons at 90.000 of this campaign. To cultivate 4.500 Ha at 840 Has the latter. And almost 20.000 jobs to 10.800 approximate remaining today. Jobs that, in most cases it corresponds to a profile of women who, in a high percentage, is the one that provides the only income in your home, Rodriguez said.
The Platform recalled that the Parliament of the Canary Islands unanimously approved the "Strategic Plan for the Canary Islands Tomato Export sector", that has not been fulfilled. The European Union, in addition to authorizing it, has been the only one that bets on our sector, paying in time and form what corresponds to him. The only administration that has done its homework.
In addition, They have used tools designed to favor local production to prevail unfair competition through import subsidies that have harmed several subsectors, destroying jobs, companies and insolently reducing territory.
After years of negotiations and after obtaining the authorization of the EU for the compensation of transport for a 70%, with fewer producers remaining, the Government of Spain reduces it to 24%, failing to do so, repeatedly the constitutional mandate to address the insular event, collected in the article 138 of the Spanish Constitution.
Despite having an instrument that could protect us against productions from third countries such as those of Morocco, Economic Impact Study, it was not requested or executed and it seems that now nobody knows anything. Not even the politicians who are in Europe, nor those that are closest to us, explained from the Platform.
The demands of the Platform are:
1º That the outstanding debt is paid: 22.726.610 M € of additional financing of the years 2010, 11, 12 and 13 and the 18.158.863 € M compensation for transportation over the years 2010, 11, 12 and 13.
2º An increase in the financial statement of POSEI for this sector.
3º New balanced distribution of POSEI along the lines proposed by the Commissioner for Agriculture, and whose document has been paralyzed, linking aid to employment and production. This would give us stability and guarantee the viability it has, for example, the banana sector.
4º Execution of the economic impact and compensation study, Retroactive, of the damages that the EU trade agreements have caused- Third countries.
5º Transportation compensation in the percentage agreed and published in the Royal Decree 170/2009 and expansion to 70% according to RD 349/2011 of 11 of March.
6º Strict compliance with the additional financing as is the case with the European, in time and form.
7º To allocate a greater amount to the Rural Development Program that allows continuing with the modernization of infrastructures and the incorporation of young farmers.
8º Make the necessary modifications in the POSEI and in the R.E.A, reviewing the unit amounts of this aid, by product, correcting the current existing overpayment for some of the R.E.A assets. So that, once the necessary review of each help line for POSEI's local productions has been carried out, We propose to group all these aids in a single. Reiterating that to be beneficiaries of this, maintenance must be met along with job creation and productivity.
All this goes through a structural solution such as our problem, not conjunctural as they insist on seeing it. The Canary Islands are not going to get closer to the Peninsula no matter how much they want to sell it to us; the distance is what it is and the conditions are what we can change, if they wanted, said the spokesman.
The high degree of employability of this crop, far superior to any other, has not been taken into account when distributing European aid.
The situation has become so complex that we no longer talk about euros, commitments, decrees, motions or proposals. We mean people. Workers, businessmen, women, families and peoples that depend on this activity to continue living with dignity and not surviving as beggars for a job that depends on what is planted to decide their standard of living, indicate from the Platform.
We have heard the Minister of Agriculture say and we are very concerned, that this PLATFORM has started a war between sectors. That's not true. The members of this PLATFORM express ourselves sharply in this regard. What we are claiming, Firstly, is the payment of the outstanding debt and with it that demonstrates that this sector and what it represents, she cares. We are not asking to take away the banana to pay the tomato. Our games were already consigned and have to appear, they affirmed.
From here we want to send a message of serenity and good sense to the banana sector. We once again insist that we are not here to fight against a sector that also generates employment and wealth. On the contrary, we want to join forces, why, maybe, what is happening to us today, tomorrow it could happen to you.
Before proceeding with the distribution of the four thousand kilos of tomatoes, while another six thousand were delivered to the Food Bank, Red Cross and Caritas at the headquarters of FEDEX, the Platform stated that this act is a call to the dignity of the sector, of the businessman, of the worker, sharecropper, of women and children who ask about the future of a sector that has fed them, provided them shelter, and for a long time it guaranteed everyone the security of a permanent and dignified job.
The Platform stated that “we are not going to tolerate politicians continuing to destroy what has cost us so much to build and that in a clumsy slap they have dismantled without even realizing that we existed.
The representatives of each of the member organizations appealed to compliance with the agreements but the administrations, warning that, if not, this is the beginning of a battery of social actions.
The Platform's spokesperson announced that this Thursday 15 May be received by the Government Delegate and on Friday 16 May by the Minister of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Therefore, social demands are conditioned on the outcome of these meetings.
In the rally, more than 3.500 one kilo bags of tomatoes among the attendees as well as another six thousand kilos that were delivered to the Food Bank, Cáritas and the Spanish Red Cross.
