The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry considers that the European Union should reinforce the allocation of funds for the sector at a time when the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is taking place.
Noé Rodrigues spoke at a seminar dedicated to this subject, considering that the CAP has been "perhaps the major European cohesion policy when targeted at the strengthening of our self-sufficient capacity in food production."
Regarding the Azores' case, the government official believes the POSEI should continue to be a "strategic and privileged" document in order to meet the specificities of regional agriculture.
In recent years, the policies developed by the Regional Government have strongly invested in the improvement of agrarian planning infrastructures, the support to the restructuring of dairy plants and the improvement of companies' access to markets. These measures are intended to better prepare the sector for an increasingly globalised world.