Unió de Pagesos calls for urgent solutions for the continuity of farming in an agricultural year marked by the serious consequences of drought and climatic damage such as frost, hail and heatstroke. Also facing the increase in production costs due to the increase in energy and the effects of the war in Ukraine. The union’s national coordinator, Joan Caball, appealed yesterday to the Catalan and state governments to “do politics” and intervene in the free market economy to reverse the situation the sector is suffering from. In this sense, he criticized that Minister Planas brags about injecting money for the fruit farms but “does not put a single euro” for the farmers.
One of the main causes of this situation has been the climatology, which has been marked by the frosts in April with a serious impact on the sweet fruit of Ponent.
Caball recalled that aid was obtained by the sector but also regretted that it has once again been shown that the agricultural insurance system does not work in these cases since the farmer, no matter how much he insures, ends up receiving a small proportion of what he would win if he could harvest in condition.
In relation to the increase in production costs, UP has warned that the sector needs an “excitement” to be able to sow again for the coming campaign since after having little income due to the drought, they will hardly be able to face prices that have doubled or tripled this year like those for fuels and fertilizers.