| Born in Valencia in 1952, he has been Minister of Agriculture and the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía and ambassador of Spain to Morocco and the EU. He has led the Agriculture portfolio of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, since June 2018. Therefore, he is one of the veterans. This week he has been in his hometown coinciding with two major controversies. Criticism for the Tajo-Segura transfer, which is considered detrimental to the Valencian countryside, and the disqualifications by Minister Belarra of the president of Mercadona, Joan Roig.
His government partners, Podemos, have criticized the president of Mercadona, Juan Roig, whom the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, called a “ruthless capitalist.” The socialist part of the Government has lowered its tone. What do you think?
There is a matter of form. I believe that good politics does not use adjectives, it uses substance, and the adjectives that have been used do not seem appropriate to me. I believe in respect and education when you agree and disagree. And that goes for everyone. Basically, the reality is that the food chain in Spain works very well. What have we asked? That it collaborate with the Government in the implementation of the measures that we have adopted to try to moderate the price of food. The data that I have is that the distribution has been involved in the application of the measures. The problem is not the business margins, but the costs, of cereals and oilseeds, of energy and fertilizers, particularly.
So, Mr. Roig is not a “ruthless capitalist”.
I do not make personal opinions about anyone, not even about myself.
Businessmen have expressed their disbelief at these disqualifications that come from a government minister.
Rather than criticize anyone, because I don’t see it as appropriate, I am going to give my point of view. I believe in an economy and a society that have strong public services and for that there needs to be a competitive economy. Our Constitution says so: a social market economy and this is based on companies and entrepreneurs who carry out a legitimate activity that involves making profits. That wealth is believed seems fantastic to me.
Transport prices are going down, those of the countryside, too, and the lack of supplies such as cereals that come from Ukraine or Russia have made substitutes. If this is the case, is it necessary to look at the distribution as the cause of the problem?
The situation from the economic point of view is balancing and quite possibly normalizing, if it can be considered normal that we have a war in Europe. We have experienced a very high rise in oil and gas prices, which have fallen. Regarding raw materials, it depends. There are some that remain at notoriously high prices, such as rapeseed, rice and durum wheat. We have others that have returned to previous prices or are close, such as common wheat, sunflower and even corn. We are in a situation where prices seem to be decreasing and stabilizing, with the exception of fertilizers, which are two or three times higher because of ammonia. The outlook is for prices to stabilize and fall gradually despite the fact that the environment is very volatile. What is the difficulty of the food chain? Many times we complain that the price of oil is not reflected very directly at the service station, but in the food chain these reflections, both in the rise and in the decrease, are more extensive in time. An example, corn or soybeans are transferred to feed prices and then to the livestock sector. Some prices are being produced but they have not yet been reflected at the final producer level.
In other words, the problem would not be so much in the distribution as in the intermediate value chains.
I would not identify a particular problem with primary production, industry or distribution. It’s a mix.
Do you already have any notice of how the VAT reduction will have impacted now that we are approaching the end of the first month of application?
We have the impression, based on partial qualitative data, that companies are passing on the VAT reduction on the purchase ticket. They show positive signs. We will have the answer to your question with the publication by the INE of the data for January, which I hope and hope will be favourable. Prices could go down somewhat, but they won’t go from fifteen to zero.
“The perspective is that food prices stabilize and go down progressively”
Should the VAT reduction have been extended to other products such as meat or fish?
Some of those who propose expanding them are actually confusing what is a measure to support citizens and what are those to support farmers or fishermen. In Spain we have paid 169 million euros to support the dairy sector, because we estimated that it had a lower profit margin, and 193 million for the meat and citrus sectors. In the case of fish, the drop in consumption is not linked to the price factor, but rather to consumption habits. We are closely monitoring. We will see it with the data for February and we will adopt the necessary measures to try, in the same way that we are the EU country with the lowest inflation, to also significantly reduce food prices.
Returning to prices in the field, farmers continue to complain that the food chain law does not solve their profitability problems. What can you tell them?
We are in a very exceptional context in relation to the increase in the price of inputs, but also in the cost of transport and a factor that should not be neglected, which is the climate. We have had a reduction this year of 49% in the production of olive oil, 26.5% of cereals, 16% of citrus… We are not in a normal year. The food chain law has come to help. I do not know what would have happened if it were not in force, but I do make a forecast: it would have happened as in the 2008 and previous crises. In other words, the weight of the distribution of the chain would have been paid by the primary sector. It has not been the case.
Ximo Puig has asked him to extend the cold treatment in South Africa to mandarins coinciding with the next Spanish presidency of the EU. What has he answered?
I think we have to go further and we have to play hard. In three ways. First, the consideration of citrus fruits as sensitive production in the EU. The European Commission is aware. Future trade agreements cannot be negotiated without considering citrus production for Spain and the EU. Second element: imported products have food safety guarantees in accordance with EU requirements. But we ask for more, we ask that they be produced under these conditions. Third, protection against epidemics and plagues. The EU has one of the strictest laws on border control with respect to third countries. It is necessary to implement it well and, when necessary, and it was with the false orange moth, that measures such as cold treatment be applied. How it was made. We have to see the impact on other products and, if necessary, make decisions.
A recession was looming for this 2023 but now it seems that Spain is going to dodge it. Does it agree with the new forecast?
If we were to pull from the newspaper library and see the PP’s predictions from last year, today we should be in a situation of a bankrupt country. The reality is that the 2022 EPA has revealed job creation and economic growth has been 5.5%. If we combine both with the fact that inflation is the lowest in the euro zone, we find ourselves in a good situation within a difficult context. Therefore, the ghosts and ominous cries that thought that there could be a catastrophe at the national level have been removed. Now they have forgotten what they said at the time. The Davos summit reflects very well this positive feeling that is given by the resistance of the European economy despite the war, by the effort of the Biden Administration to relaunch the North American economy and the end of the zero covid policy in China and the progressive reopening of its market.
Why has the Ministry of Agriculture remained in profile on the issue of the Tagus-Segura transfer that has provoked the general protest of Alicante, Murcian and Valencian farmers?
I am not concerned about what the Minister of Agriculture says, but what the farmers think and what the Government of Spain is doing. And until the third cycle of hydrological planning was approved, there has been intense internal work as a result of which we have been able to guarantee all the farmers of the Valencian Community, Murcia and Almería that they will be able to irrigate whatever the climatic context in which we find ourselves. we would find Since 1980, the decrease in average rainfall has been 12%. According to the calculations of scientists and meteorologists that we have, it can reach 14 or 15% in 2050. Under these conditions, we have surface resources, deep water, the possibility of regenerating recycled or unconventional water, and desalination as sources. The irrigator does not care about the origin. He cares about flow and price. Regarding the flow, it is essential to maintain that necessary volume. Regarding the price, there will be a mix between the use of desalinated water, which is more expensive, reclaimed water, which is an intermediate price, and surface water.
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Ximo Puig has been put in an electoral bind for this issue. All Alicante has protested. The Generalitat has decided, after failing to obtain concessions from the Government, to put money from its own funds to make desalinated water cheaper. And the judicial appeal is on the table. How do you value it?
I think that the one who is in a real bind is the Popular Party, because it has once again chosen a field that is classic to it: water wars, based on feelings and not on data. There the right navigates very well. An objective fact. Between 2014 and 2018, 829 cubic hectometres. Management of the PP, with months in which the Tagus-Segura did not work. The PP is silent about it. That is the reality of the PP’s water management. Between 2018 and 2022, 1,229 cubic hectometres. We have made a favorable management and committed to irrigation.