The field refuses to limit prices as requested by Yolanda Díaz: "It will punish us even more, it is nonsense"

• Agricultural sector Drought and heat drown the Spanish countryside: 8,000 million losses and 14.5% of employment destroyed

"If Yolanda Díaz's measure is approved, a family eating a lamb will become a privilege."

The food production sector unanimously rejects the initiative proposed by the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, to

in the face of escalating inflation.

All the agrarian organizations without exception and the farmers and ranchers themselves, harassed by the

, reject what they consider "an occurrence" because its repercussions, if approved, would have "even worse consequences, it will punish us and even there may be total shortages of certain foods".

Some even raised the tone yesterday, such as the president of Asaja,

tired during the course of the legislature of the initiatives of both the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, and the Minister of Labor herself, considering them "direct attacks."

"The prices of lamb, veal or even chicken are going to rise, there is no doubt about that, but even more farms are going to close," denounces

, a merino farmer in Medellín (Badajoz). , who warns that if Diaz's measure is approved "

of certain basic foods."

So she is clear.

The second vice president's proposal "is nonsense because food is food and cannot be treated as an ideology."

Pedro Barato, president of Asaja, adds: "His excessive personal selfishness is putting at risk the foundations of a sector that has always been there, supplying society" and considers that this controversy has its origin in the "whims and personal selfishness" of Díaz that endanger, in his opinion, "the foundations of a sector as important as agriculture."

Regarding the measure itself, he warned that with the

the shopping basket "the one who suffers the most from the prices received for agricultural products will be punished, that is, farmers and ranchers."

PRICES

The storm over the field returns after knowing precisely in the last hours that the costs of agricultural and livestock production

in their interannual rate while the prices received by farmers and ranchers

, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), with data from the month of May 2022. The COAG organization also released another report yesterday, that of the price of food from its origin in the field or on farms to the consumer.

According to this study, it

, with fruits and vegetables (garlic, lettuce, plums and carrots) as the products that have raised their price the most throughout the chain, all above the 500%.

Precisely,

, warns that "although open debate is necessary, it is necessary to delve a little more" because Díaz's proposal may have "serious consequences for producers".

For this manager, it is a priority to

that occurs throughout the food chain process so that consumers can access basic foods at an affordable price.

"There is a wide margin to contain prices and it is not being done by the government or by the autonomous communities," he denounces.

speaks along the same lines .

, who urged the Vice President of the Government, before opening this debate, to work to enforce the law of the food chain as a priority, a regulation approved in this legislature but that has not yet produced any effect, in addition to paying farmers, at a minimum, production costs.

"From there, that the speculation that may exist in the handling of food products is controlled so that there is no excessive price towards consumers seems good to us", assures the person in charge of UPA.

AT FIELD FOOT

At the foot of the field, the rancher María del Camino Limia regrets in statements to EL MUNDO that "neither a pandemic nor a war in Ukraine have yet served for

the people who produce food in the field."

Thus, he considers that "some believe that people eat ideology when what they eat is food" while recalling that producing a liter of milk or a kilo of meat means, for a producer, "going into debt because it does not match the price of producing with the selling price.

In this sense, he underlines that "families are losing purchasing power and there are fewer and

as beef, lamb or even chicken, which has risen by 30%".

For this farmer, "when trying to limit prices with this idea of ​​what is going to happen now is a total supply problem, and we are going to see that, and then we are going to realize that the costs of the crisis, badly managed by putting ideology first,

because many families are having to close their farms".

In this way, María del Camino Limia maintains that as long as they continue with these measures, "eating a good lamb or a good veal

when meat is an essential and basic food that must be accessible to all people, and especially the most disadvantaged, who are the ones who need them the most".

In his opinion, "what must be tackled is a problem of production in the field, of positioning, supporting and accompanying

because they are businesses like any other and if the accounts do not come out what they do is close them and if they are closed, in the end, fewer products are put on the table of consumers and it seems that they do not realize it".

Specifically, according to this rancher, if the minimum cost cap for basic products came into force "there would be a break in the market and they will not enjoy basic food as they have been doing until now, as until recently little", for which he insists that "eating a lamb is going to be a privilege, firstly because of the price and secondly because

", he denounces.

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