The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment expressed today his concern with the refusal of the Minister of Agriculture and the Sea, Assunção Cristas, to take a commitment towards the positive discrimination of Azorean milk producers in the allocation of the funds that will be granted to Portugal under the extraordinary financial package proposed by the European Commission.

Luís Neto Viveiros restated that the EU Commission's decision to propose the allocation of 500 million Euros for the productions affected by the Russian ban "is not enough for the entire Community space." However, he stressed that the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Agriculture has already admitted that Portugal may benefit from an increase of funds due to the Autonomous Region of the Azores.

"According to the information released by "Diário Económico" newspaper, the European Commission has recognised that the impact of the end of milk quotas or the Russian embargo is felt harder in the Autonomous Region of the Azores. Therefore, this aspect should be taken into consideration in the distribution of funds by Member States," stressed the Regional Secretary.

However, Neto Viveiros added that the "Portuguese State is responsible for the internal distribution of funds, which is why the Minister's refusal to take a commitment towards Azorean producers is a motive for concern."

"We also find strange the reference she made to POSEI. This mechanism, which is fully used by the Region, cannot address he exceptionally difficult situation the milk sector is facing since it is intended to support several productions, including meat, wine, flowers, tea and fruit (pineapple or banana) and vegetables," said the government official.

Luís Neto Viveiros also regretted that the Portuguese Government has yet to provide any information on the matter to the Regional Government, despite the weight of the regional production of milk and cheese at a national level. It represents 30 and 50% of the total production in the country, respectively.

Despite welcoming all measures that can help dairy farmers to successfully face the current situation in Europe, such as exemption of contributions to the Social Security for a period of three months, the Regional Secretary for Agriculture regretted that the Region continues to wait for a response to the requests that have been made many months ago. The requests concerned the definitive revision of current Social Security scheme that is unfair for the sector and is detrimental to all young farmers, regardless of the production areas.

Regarding the Action Plan announced today for the milk sector, the Regional Secretary noted that milk producers from Mainland Portugal will benefit from the support mechanisms already available in the Region.

The Government of the Azores, stressed Neto Viveiros, has been proactive in supporting the challenges the milk sector currently faces and, among other measures, has already created a new line of credit to support agriculture, which was announced today by the Council of Ministers.
 
AGROCRÉDITO, amounting to 30 million Euros, is already in force in the Azores and is intended to reinforce the financial capacity of farms.