The regional secretary for Agriculture and Forestry guaranteed today that, due to a possible dismantlement of the dairy quotas regime in 2014/2015, the Region has been guaranteeing, by means of guarantee of the Government of the Republic, a regime of compensation that will allow to maintain and to deepen the competitiveness of the Azorean producers.
 
In declarations to the Press, Noé Rodrigues reiterated, however, in “a clear and unmistakable way”, that the Government of the Azores keeps on defending the maintenance of the dairy quotas system, considering that this regime “protects the productive capacity and, at the same time, the competitiveness of the Azorean producers”.

“For a long time ago that the Regional Executive, together with the Government of the Republic, working to guarantee supplementary supports and compensations, due to the eventual dismantlement of the regime of quotas, a position that was agreed in the Region with all the producers' organizations and political forces”, he affirmed.

According to Noé Rodrigues, the Government of the Azores is strongly committed in the support to the restructuring of the sector, through the reduction of the number of producers and of the increase of the production of milk and of the medium dimension of the explorations, allowing them to reinforce the levels of competitiveness.

“A process that is going to be reinforced by the new available supports for the productive sector, always guaranteeing a worthy exit of all the producers who leave the sector in the continuation of the same restructuring”, he secured.

On the case of the SINAGA sugar enterprise, the secretary for Agriculture and Forestry guaranteed that the Government of the Azores is going to keep on making, whether to the Minister for Agriculture whether to the Community authorities, positions of alert for the need of defence of this agrarian industry remaining active in the Region, considering that it “represents a very important contribute to maintain some levels of diversification of the regional productive base”.

The governor emphasized that there is, by part of the European commissioner of the sector and of the Commission itself, the acceptance of the beginning of the importance of SINAGA in the diversification, lacking, now, the adoption of the specific measures for viability of the activity of this agrarian-industry.

It is a situation that “will keep on being placed in all the opportune moments, before the national and European authorities”, he guaranteed.