The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry announced today that the Region, under the Azores Milk and Dairy Products Centre (CALL), "will submit an application to Brussels" for the promotion of dairy products and wine in order to "find new markets."
 
João Ponte spoke at the end of the CALL meeting held in Ponta Delgada in which he participated for the first time as Secretary for Agriculture.
 
The mission of CALL is to ensure the monitoring and intervention in the regional milk sector and dairy sector; the Government, production and industry are represented at this body.
 
"We are now discussing target markets, but we have already identified the United States, Canada and Macao," said the Regional Secretary.
 
The selection of these markets arises from the fact that there is "a strong presence of Portuguese and Azorean" emigrants in the United States and Canada," the Regional Secretary said, stressing that "it will be easier to find partners for distribution."
 
The choice of Macau is justified, according to João Ponte, "because it has a huge potential and is a territory with historical links to Portugal, where there are still many Portuguese citizens and companies," said the government official. According to him, Macau is also "a gateway to China with a very important strategic location."
 
"This is a market that can provide us a very positive input in terms of future sales," said the Regional Secretary.
 
For João Ponte, "it does not make sense to promote dairy products in Europe as there are surpluses."
 
"We must look for markets that are able to enhance our products, because this is what supports the entire value chain," said the government official.
 
João Ponte considered that this is "an opportunity for the Azorean industry and agricultural sector to find new markets, seizing EU funds to finance such campaigns."
 
The European Commission has recently announced a new package of measures to promote European agricultural products within the EU and third countries.
 
In the case that concerns the Azores, there is an allocation over 12 million Euros at European level that will then be distributed according to the best projects.
 
"By associating the wine to dairy products, especially cheese, this will result in a bonus for the application," said João Ponte.
 
Although it is only open to associations and not individuals, João Ponte expressed confidence in the success of the Azorean application.
 
"Given our application history, there is an interesting potential and we hope to succeed. We will work for it," said the Regional Secretary.