Carlos César reassures the promotion of farming and announces new supports to cereal import
The President of the Government of the Azores announced today the approval of a new reinforcement to support cereal import, with which the Government will reverse the market tendency and contribute to the maintenance of farmers’ income.
Carlos César spoke at the opening ceremony of the 8th S. Miguel Holstein Frisian Cow Competition taking place at Santana Fair on S. Miguel, adding that “the Government of the Azores has reinforced guidelines and resources to improve the support to the investment regarding the modernisation of Azorean farms, a support which will be now extended to milk farms, thus incentivising and inducing new improvements in their own infrastructures.”
On the other hand – and in addition to the measures which have already come into force, not only for the interest compensations, but also for the creation of the working capital of farms – the Government will put into operation, with producers’ organisations, the full anticipation of the payment of one of the most significant supports to milk farms: the dairy premium in an amount of 18 million Euros.
For the President of the Government, these are real measures to help the sustainability and the competiveness of the agricultural sector, which “in its diverse sectors and production methods create wealth, feeds families, assures the sustained growth of our economy and qualifies the Azores,” thus being important for all Azoreans.
Furthermore, Carlos César stated that “the evolution of milk farming in the Azores demonstrates what we have done – all – a good job and we have followed an important path.”
Stating that today we produce 37% more milk than a decade ago, due to the improvement average production per animal, the quota of reference which was allocated to Azorean producers increased from 382 million litres to 540 million litres; the resizing of farms enabled the increase of the average quota from 82,000 litres to 160,000 litres; moreover the modernisation of the processing industry sector reduced the proportionality regarding the commercialisation of products with low market value, such as powdered milk.
The fact that, by the first time, the milk quota covers the entire Regional milk production, “deflecting the payment of supplementary compensations which the EU wanted to impose us in 2003,” was another indicator provided by Carlos César, who justified the Azorean Government’s commitment to fight against the dismantling of milk quota system.
“However, nobody in good faith can question the extraordinary commitment that the Government of the Azores has always had among the European entities to reverse such process. We will continue to do it now. Stressing that in these troubled times for the market that we are facing, the decision of deregulating the milk production is even more erroneous,” said the President.
Praising the Agricultural Association of S. Miguel by the work that it has been developing and being the Holstein Frisian Competition an example of this work, the President of the Government reassured the Government’s intention of continuing to support the farming sector, through the investment in agricultural, rural and forestry roads, in addition to the increase of the electric grid in farms.
With regard to the water supply, Carlos César stated that, during this legislature, a global investment of 16 million Euros is going to take place on all Islands under the “Regional Investment Plan for Water Supply Systems to Farming,” whose implementation should make up the current insufficiencies that were detected in the water collecting, storage and distribution to farming on several Islands.