The Basque Government studies quick subsidies to help the primary sector

The Basque Government has shown its “absolute commitment” to defending and supporting the Basque primary sector in the face of the negative repercussions of the Ukraine crisis and has promised to implement “some type of financial measure subject to de minimis, low-amount subsidies that they do not need to communicate their concession to the European Commission, which allows them to endure this situation”.

In addition, as it did in the pandemic, the Basque Executive has conveyed its willingness to implement contingency actionsalso activating new resources that can be enabled within the framework of legal action that authorize the European Union.

The Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, held a meeting this Wednesday with agents from the agricultural, livestock, fishing and forestry sectors, as a result of the impact that the rise in the prices of raw materials has had on their activity agricultural, fuel and fertilizers, derived from the war in Ukraine.

The cost of electricity, gas and diesel, as well as the increase in raw materials are weighing down the activity of the primary sector. In this sense, Tapia has assured that the problems are clear and that he will transfer the opinions and demands of the sector to the Agrarian Sectorial Conference that will be held in the afternoon in Madrid.

The organizations attending the meeting (inshore guilds of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, OPPAO, ANABAK, canneries, ENHE Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, ENBA Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, Uaga, Konfecoop, Euskadi Wood Association and Euskadi Feed Manufacturers) have stated that this conflict will generate shortage problems of key elements for primary productionas well as a significant price hike of these raw materials and energy.

All of this, as they have stated, represents a “perfect storm” for the agricultural and livestock sector, both in terms of feed shortages and, in the best of cases, implying a “very strong” increase in goods, which would be added to the already sharp rises in 2021.

According to data from the Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives of the Basque Country, the most affected subsectors are feed factories and livestock, with increases in their expenses of between 25% and 40%, figures that are “impossible to pass on” to the consumers.

In the case of fishing sector, both the representatives of large freezers, as well as those from high altitude to the fresh and those from inshore, have stated that the “critical” point is the unsustainable situation that the rise in the price of diesel has meant for the fleet, an element that has a great impact on measured in fixed operating costs. The cost of diesel has gone from accounting for 25% of total costs, with a price of 0.40 euros per liter, to more than 60% with a price of one euro per litre.

The aid proposals proposed by the sector go through measures such as requesting an increase in ‘minimis’ state aid, increasing the interannual flexibility of quotas as was done during the pandemic, the exemption of port fees, aid for temporary cessation of fishing activities , VAT reduction, and exemptions or discounts in Social Security matters, among others.