/The aid line, which is financed by the ministry and the Consell de Menorca, will be published during the month of February.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of Economy of the Consell de Menorca have constituted this Wednesday the table of the dairy sector, composed of the Ministry, the Consell de Menorca, the three professional agricultural organizations (Unió de Pagesos de Menorca, AGRAME and FAGME), the Association of Manufacturers and Curadores de Queso de Menorca, the Association Frisona Balear, the DOP Mahón-Menorca Cheese and Agri-Food Cooperatives of the Balearic Islands. The constitution of this round table is one of the actions of the inter-sector and inter-institutional agreement for the implementation and development of the support plan for the viability, modernisation, promotion and marketing of Menorca’s dairy sector (PROVILAC), signed at the end of 2021. The agreement includes 16 actions for the year 2022 with the aim of tackling the profitability crisis of the island’s dairy farmers.
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The meeting of the roundtable took place in Maó and was attended, on behalf of the institutions, by the councillor Mae de la Concha, the director-general of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández, the councillor of Economy and Territory of the Consell de Menorca, Josep Pastrana, and the island’s director of Economy, Pilar Pons.
According to councillor De la Concha, this sectoral roundtable “is being set up with the Menorcan dairy sector because of the profitability crisis it is suffering, but it will also include the participation of the sector from the other islands on some occasions”. He explained that “it is the first step, as the agreement includes many more actions, including the promotion of cheese, to tackle the structural change that this sector needs to guarantee its survival”.
During the meeting, the first month of the agreement was discussed and it was noted that the first success has been the increase of two cents per litre from the industries to the farmers. One of the plan’s actions was also discussed, which is to raise the dairy cattle sector’s income and, therefore, to improve the basic price of milk for 2022. This involves the implementation of a single line of aid, with a contribution from the Department (0.026 euros/litre) and the Consell de Menorca (0.020 euros/litre) in the form of additional costs or running costs for livestock farms. This line of aid is expected to be published in February, once it has been communicated to the European Commission. This line of aid is complementary to the commitments made by the industries to also increase the price of the milk they pay to farmers.
The agreement signed between the council, the Consell de Menorca and the dairy sector includes, among other measures, the creation of a permanent round table for consultation and monitoring of dairy contracts, in which the administrations participate as observers. It will be set up in mid-February and will be made up of the three professional farming organisations (Unió de Pagesos de Menorca, AGRAME and Fagme), the Menorcan Cheese Manufacturers and Curers Association, and the Agri-food Cooperatives of the Balearic Islands.
The state of implementation of current aid for dairy cattle was also reported, such as aid for calf rearing, aid for maintaining the dairy sector, aid for drought and aid for reducing milk potential, among others.