The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry met today with the sector's organisations on the island of Pico. According to his estimates, the wine production area on this island "will quadruple," but stressed that the challenges in winegrowing "are huge."
"We have done an excellent job in recent years regarding the improvement of wine quality and production processes. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to seize the available Community funds and we hope that, in coming years, the presence of Azorean wine may be even more important in external markets," said João Ponte.
The Azores wine gained projection and quality as a result of the work carried out by the Regional Wine Commission, with which the Regional Secretary also met today. In this regard, the government official mentioned the Pico Wine Cellar Cooperative, considering that it did a "good job in the certification wine."
"Now, it is important that the Government and regional producers continue these efforts so that wine production may have an even more important role in Pico's economy," said the government official.
João Ponte stressed that "there is still plenty of room for agricultural diversification, particularly vegetable, fruit and wine growing; this should be achieved by investing in these areas and not by reducing milk and meat production."
In this visit to Pico, the Regional Secretary also met with the Farmers' Association and the Young Farmers' Associations.
João Ponte mentioned that the meat sector is in "a situation that I would consider a comfortable," adding that "exports to Mainland Portugal have grown significantly."
"There is a need to increase our capacity in terms of cold storage equipment and make some investments in Pico slaughterhouse. Nevertheless, the Azorean Government intends to provide a positive response for this situation in the near future," said the government official.
As for the milk situation, João Ponte considered that "it is quite the same throughout the Region," reaffirming that "it has to do with production prices, which are low in relation to the current needs of producers. However, the main response will come from markets."
The Government of the Azores, assured João Ponte, is monitoring this situation very carefully, but expects the industry "to give a sign in terms of price adjustment as quickly as possible. This would be important to the sector and would also encourage the producers who have gone through a very complex situation in the management of their farms. "
João Ponte stressed that "there is already significant signs that are evident in Europe with regard to the increase of prices paid to producers," adding that "this situation will become a reality in the Azores sooner or later."