The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry began today a series of meetings with all associations of the sector, which will continue over this legislative period. The government official stressed that "this is how the Azorean Government wants to work, being close to organisations and to all those who may contribute to the development of a very important sector to the Region."
 
Speaking at the end of a meeting with the Azores Agricultural Federation, João Ponte said the meetings aimed to "identify the major concerns of the sector and the decisions to be taken in the near future."
 
With regard to the milk sector, João Ponte stressed that "it is important to clarify that its difficulties were not created by the Regional Government." Nonetheless, it has received special attention in recent times.
 
"As President of the Azores Agricultural Federation said, the Government implemented important measures to help a sector that has gone through great difficulties and is still facing some," added the government official.
 
For the Regional Secretary, "there is expectation and hope for an adjustment in milk prices in the near future," considering that "it is important to give confidence to the sector as well as to reward the effort of farmers."
 
However, João Ponte revealed that "the scope of the Regional Government's actions is limited" in this matter.
 
"In any case, I have already met with some industrialists and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. It is important to note the existence of indicators showing an increase in demand as well as in prices at national and European level. This demonstrates that the sector might have the conditions to make a slight adjustment in the price of milk in the near future," said the government official.
 
As for the slaughter network, he recalled that the Region is currently carrying out a significant investment of about 15 million Euros to improve four of the archipelago's slaughterhouses.
 
"This is very important to the promotion of the meat sector," stressed João Ponte.
 
The Regional Secretary also mentioned a number of investments in other areas, such as agricultural roads and power supply to farms, stressing that "there is an effort to continue the work towards the improvement of conditions so that farmers may improve their production, consequently, boost their income. 
 
João Ponte considered that the next revision of POSEI is very important. According to him, there will be time in 2017 to "analyse and negotiate this matter together with the Azores Agricultural Federation, taking into consideration the importance of this programme to the sector."