The Government of the Azores is committed to start the construction works of the horticultural and floricultural centre of Faial Agricultural Cooperative in the near future.
 
The idea was conveyed on Wednesday by the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry during the presentation of the construction project of this facility with an estimated budget of one million Euros.

I agree that all this should have been done, but the truth is that we have followed the rights path and we are proud of the steps we have taken, said Noé Rodrigues.

For the government official, the project presented by Faial Agricultural Cooperative, which is supported by the Government and the Horta City Hall, "has many merits" and will certainly be "a good contribution to the organisation of producers and boost the agricultural sector on Faial."

However, the Regional Secretary for Agriculture warned for the existence of "some risks" not only in financial terms, but also in the mentality of farmers. To achieve success, this type of initiative needs "great deal of openness and involvement" of farms from all sectors, underlined Noé Rodrigues.

The government official also said that all these projects developed by the Faial agricultural cooperative and association "are not incompatible" with other producers' organisations, adding that each organisation is free to establish their own goals and define their scope of intervention.

Furthermore, Noé Rodrigues informed that the Government will soon promote on the island of Faial a meeting between distribution and production of the these areas of diversification with the purpose of identifying products and trade references imported that may be replaced for local production.

As the Regional Secretary stated, "it is neither our intention to monitor what each person is doing through this initiative nor to create administrative tools to stipulate the income of people." But, if we know the market needs, we may better plan the production and seize these opportunities.

The government official launched a challenge to Faial Agricultural Association and Cooperative to include, in addition to "Triângulo" brand, the Azores in their product labels.

Concluding, Noé Rodrigues said that the Azorean agriculture has registered a "very good" evolution in recent years, pointing out that milk production has grown 50% over the last ten years, although the numbers of producers decreased 47%.
 
The Regional Secretary for Agriculture also said that the number of slaughter premiums paid increased from 32,000 to 71,000 in six years whereas in the areas of agricultural diversification, production grew from 410 to 830 hectares with regional and Community support.

"If this does evidence the good work carried out by our farmers, then I do not know what is working well," concluded the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry.