The supply crisis suffocates the Spanish countryside: "If the primary sector falls, the country will fall"

• DAVID VIGARIO

  Merida

Updated Sunday, 7November2021-00: 04

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Farmers and ranchers

in the face of the uncontrolled rise in their production costs.

Only in the last few months, fertilizers have increased by 300%;

electricity 270%, diesel 73% or feed 23% ... These are just some of the examples of what is

.

Thousands of farms are today on the brink of disappearance.

Complaints about the misuse of the food chain coupled with price pressure from supermarkets end up creating the perfect storm.

The agrarian sector cries out in despair, but at the moment nobody is listening.

The farmer from Almería Antonio Navarro.

ANTONIO NAVARRO.

Hortaliza (Almería): «Many are going to stay on the road»

Three hectares to grow 'red california' peppers are those

Antonio Navarro, 50, in the municipality of

. As usual in the Spanish countryside, tradition counts a lot, so from the age of 18 he started working with his father. Now his daughter, Jennifer, 27, with a degree in Artistic Drawing, follows in his footsteps, finding no other job opportunity. «In the 30 years that I have been cultivating,

so many inputs have never gone up at the same time; sometimes they raised taxes, other times another input, but all at the same time, together, as now, never,

describes - and unfortunately many farmers are going to stay on the road ».

His campaign began on July 25 and will end in spring with the goal of reaching 1,500 kg. pepper. The spreadsheet is transparent: for each hectare of cultivation last year 67,000 euros were spent.

. The plastics on the farm's roof, being greenhouse, have to be changed every three years. In total, the budget will amount to 75,000 euros -8,000 euros more than last season- due to the fact that fertilizers have become 64% more expensive this campaign, the four nitrate fertilizers that mix more sulfate. 4,300 euros have been spent in these three months of cultivation in this section. Above, the supply of plastic, essential in the production area of ​​Almería, has increased its price by 25% and the energy cost by 270%, an essential system to use for irrigation motors.

The

charge of bringing water from the aquifers, already figures at 300% the rise in energy costs in the province of Almería.

“Sanitary measures due to the pandemic inside the facilities, such as cooperatives, have widened the separation spaces between workers, so what used to be done in one shift is now done in several.

Expenses have increased a lot, such

and since we do not set the prices of our products ... ».

So the future is "very uncertain", so it does not imply that young people do not join the agricultural sector.

Donaciano Dujo in front of his tractor.

DONACIANO DUJO.

Cereal (Palencia): «Everything volatile, this has never been seen»

At 54 years old and 37 in the cereal sector on a farm in

, Donaciano Dujo believes that the worst thing about this situation of rising prices “is the great uncertainty it generates because if we need something the people of the countryside are safety ”, he warns, and not only because of the production itself but also in aspects so theoretically unimaginable until recently, such as the difficulty in finding parts for the renovation of agricultural machinery.

admits to show his fear, even that in the spring there may be fertilizers on the market.

Only in fertilizers, electricity and diesel, the expenses are going to rise in a production of 150 hectares on average to almost 10,000 euros, so it already calculates that with the increase of 300% in fertilizers and almost 80% in diesel, the budget is going to skyrocket. "I have never seen a similar situation, production costs have never risen so much to plant the cereal," insists Donaciano.

because they simply do not know if they will have the materials, they do not know at what price, and that has never been seen." The cost of inputs has risen "an outrage", which

because "this has to stop somehow."

In this sense, he points out that it is essential for Spain to be self-sufficient in staple products and production goods, "as has been seen during the pandemic, have its own production, because if not then we have to import it, late and expensive", holds. In addition to advocating for aid to the agricultural sectors that are experiencing the worst, this cereal grower points to an application "with rigor of the food chain, with long-term contracts" and a unit of the field before the administration: "Produce at a loss you

;

We do not know what profitability we are going to have next year in rainfed agriculture, how much our land will produce, what value those cereals that we have planted will have ”.

And it predicts if there is no solution in a short time: "Consumers are going to have to pay for a very expensive diet."

Juan Francisco Chamorro.

JUAN FRANCISCO CHAMORRO.

Olives and rice (Badajoz): «If the primary sector falls, the country will fall»

At 38 years old, Juan Francisco Chamorro harvests

both olives

at this time of year in his lands in

and also prepares the sowing for the next rice campaign. He considers the situation in the primary sector as

and emphasizes the price of agricultural diesel, which last year cost him between 40-45 cents a liter when now it is set at 90 cents. Also in the exorbitant rise in light, which affects drying, irrigation systems, all kinds of facilities for our machinery for livestock for agriculture, our tractors, implements, our cars ... and the times it has risen.

"As if that were not enough, we have increased the quota of freelancers, the SMI, supplies, fertilizers also double what they were worth last year ...

complains Chamorro, who assures that the average citizen may not care" because many say that it does not affect them because they do not turn on the light at home, even if they stumble in the dark, but when they go to the supermarket So they are paying for the increase in electricity in that establishment, the increase in the cost of making the product, the expenses that we are having ..., so they will surely realize it ».

In addition, he clarifies that

farmers and ranchers because production costs are much higher than the difference in prices at origin." In addition, he considers that the administration wants an agricultural sector "divided and confronted" and considers it decisive to limit the entry of agri-food products from third countries:

In most things, and are we also going to let us be so now in the food sector, something so important? ”, he wonders, after remembering what happened in the pandemic with the supply of masks, that they had to be requested and pay them very expensive abroad.

"The free trade agreements with third countries are harming us because they do not compete with the same rules as us."

The rancher Antonio López.

ANTONIO LÓPEZ.

Sheep (Badajoz): «The feed has risen from 600 to 1,300 euros»

With a long family tradition -fourth generation-, Antonio López (40 years old) has a herd of merino sheep that has about 5,000 mothers on land almost entirely rented near

. "What is doing us the most damage is the rise in feed because in two years it has gone from costing us 40 pesetas to 54 plus VAT." Over the years, he still usually calculates prices in this currency, although to summarize the expenses of the previous campaign he goes to his official records, already in euros. "

to supply the sheep, but in

.

"And to that we must add social insurance, the leasing of farms, diesel for the tractor ... A disaster, I never saw anything like it," he complains.

A similar thing happens to Antonio with nitrate, whose tonne is already around 800 euros and on top of that «those of dry land are always looking at the sky, to see if it rains, but

.

So "right now we are almost 'lending' money to the production of lambs."

So the farmer qualifies as "critical" the situation in the sector, which has been joined by the blue tongue disease, which has forced him to sacrifice several farrowing pens. «My grandmother already told me that you always had to save for the bad years, but now all the campaigns are like this lately, with this tremendous rise in prices,

His father, 70, who is actively retired, works in its production.

«

, or you have sucked it since you were a child, or after three days they get bored.

I owe my wife the last four or five years of vacation because I can not detach myself from the sheep 365 days a year, it is impossible, "he laments, to which he adds his criticism to the scarce aid to enhance access to young people to the agrarian world: "One who is going to start cannot invest with such high costs, it is impossible, in my case, fortunately, I had my father ...".

The rancher Juan Luis Delgado.

JUAN LUIS DELGADO.

Vacas (Salamanca): «Of the 48 euro steak, we get 4»

"There is no justification and no explanation for this exorbitant price increase." This is the reason for Juan Luis Delgado, 48, a rancher with approximately 1,000 hectares rented in small plots in

, a town belonging to the municipality of

. "We have never experienced a situation like this and especially considering that we have come from many months of pandemic, where everything came to a standstill and there should be a wider range of products," he reasons. Now, steel, very necessary because it is used to build, for example, corrals or the expansion of warehouses, has risen 78% and feed, 35%, to feed their extensive livestock of meat and fattening for the cows. It doesn't stop there.

This farmer has pulled a calculator and values ​​that the total expenditure he has for each cow per year in extensive is 553 euros while the total income remains at 551 euros;

that is, you lose two euros for each issue.

50% of the male animals are sold at 700 euros and of the females at 550 euros, which

(270 euros in a three-hectare field) or 87 euros of straw, 81 of feed each 180 days as a measure of overfeeding due to not having enough grass, more veterinary treatments, depreciation of facilities, machines, hoppers, etc.

“Society must become aware that prices must have an impact on farmers and ranchers, people do not mind buying a mobile for 500 euros and after six months buying a more expensive one, and nothing happens ... but with the agrarian world does not think the same. And he gives another example: «They charged me the other day in a restaurant 48 euros per kilo of steak, but at most they pay us 4 euros per kilo; and

, that they pay us five. In this sense, he complains that the Food Chain Law is not well developed and asks "to compensate us for production costs if possible." And a key element:

to compete with third countries, which do not pass the sanitary controls and of all kinds that they require us here to sell our products.

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