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«It is not normal for this to happen, I do not know if it has gotten out of hand, but there is a lot of work to do. What we want is to forget this topic, we don't want to talk about Listeria ». Who speaks is José Antonio Ortiz, director of the company Icarben, one of which fifteen dedicated to the production and sale of meat products in Benaojá n (Málaga) and the one chosen by the Junta de Andalucía for, emulating the famous bath of Manuel Fraga in Palomares, to stage his support for the sector with the presence of four counselors -Elías Bendodo, Presidency; Rocío Blanco, Employment; Carmen Crespo, Agriculture, and Jesús Aguirre, Salud- and a plate of meatloaf .

Ortiz made this Saturday host to the delegation of advisors and mayors - those of Benaoján, Soraya García, and Ronda, María Paz Fernández - and put them in front of a 7,000 kilogram meatloaf tray that, he says, has been stored for months in the cold stores before the impossibility of selling them. Not because they do not comply with all regulations and are absolutely free of Listeria, but simply because the market has sunk after the health alert on August 15 and, above all, points, after the other two alerts, one in a company of Paterna and the other right there, in Benaoján, in a company similar to yours even in the name.

If until that moment, the shredded meat concentrated the collateral damage of the health crisis, thereafter all products, the entire sector, became under suspicion . "I don't know if it has gotten out of hand, but there has been no good management," he says just a few hours before the act with which the Board intends to turn the situation around.

In general, he explains, sales have been able to fall by 20%, a figure that soars up to 70% in regards to meatloaf. "Nothing is sold," he says very graphically to regret, then that most of those 7,000 kilos stored in his company will have to destroy them because it will soon expire.

And all this despite the fact that his company, like most underlines, has never had "any problem and has all the certifications ." Those required by the regulations and, in the case of Icarben, a few more, since it has been selling its products to large surfaces and chains with very demanding quality standards for years.

"A lot of work to do"

"It has spread that the products are made in a garage , how have they let this happen?" Asks Ortiz, who adds that there are now "many people who panic." Therefore, he insists that "there is a lot of work to be done" and that the priority now is to regain the trust of consumers, to "trust again."

That is precisely the objective of the institutional campaign that, with the motto 'Gusto del Sur', wants to relaunch the sale of Andalusian meat products with a budget of 160,000 euros for the national and local markets and that will cross borders with Extenda. Arrive at agri-food fairs around the world.

The manager of Icarben hopes that the initiative will work, but in the meantime his company has had to make adjustments of personnel and dispense with the reinforcements that other years hired for the Christmas campaign that has already begun with expectations not too rosy.

Suffice it to say that in Benaoján, a municipality of just over 1,500 inhabitants, there are fifteen companies that are dedicated to making meat products and that, directly and indirectly, employ between 30 and 40% of the entire population.

Throughout Andalusia, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, in 2017 there were 727 establishments and meat production companies, with a turnover of 2,148 million euros and 9,000 workers. Most companies, 67%, have no more than two employees.

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  • Andalusia
  • Malaga
  • Listeriosis
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