At a news conference ahead of the 12th Ibero-American Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries in Córdoba, Planas described proposals to this effect as “quite extreme” and said the agreements with Morocco were “absolutely essential” to Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. The minister recalled that the first trade agreement dates back to 2000 and the second to 2012, and argued that both have worked “very well,” with agricultural and food products exchanged in both directions.
TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH MOROCCO
He also noted that there are “cross-cutting interests” between the two countries and cited Spanish livestock exports as an example. He explained that animal health reasons had temporarily halted Spanish sales to Morocco of live animals, particularly sheep, as well as frozen meat.
However, Planas said agricultural organizations had asked the government to step up contacts with Moroccan authorities to restore those exports, given their importance to Spain’s sheep-farming sector. Regarding the situation in Ceuta, he said the government was working to restore “normality” and guarantee both border security and the safety of citizens. “Some are working to prevent normality from returning,” he criticized.
“Society’s problems” are solved “with arguments, by working every day and trying to address existing problems in a constructive way,” he concluded.
LABOR SHORTAGES IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
Planas also defended the regularization process promoted by the government as one of the measures to address the agricultural sector’s difficulties in finding workers, a problem that, he said, also affects other European countries.
The minister said the lack of workers, along with water availability, was one of the main problems that farmers, livestock breeders and cooperatives raised during his visits to farms and companies in the sector. In this regard, he argued that regularization would make workers available to meet the needs of agricultural campaigns and paid particular attention to the olive harvest, which he described as Spain’s most labor-intensive campaign.
PLANAS DEFENDS REGULARIZATION
Planas defended the government’s decision against those who have criticized regularization and said he had a “very clear conscience.” “It has an economic rationale, a labor rationale, a social and ethical rationale,” he said. He also indicated that agricultural organizations and cooperatives were working through job pools to fill existing positions, both in Córdoba and Andalusia and across the rest of Spain.
