January 15, 2024.- The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), allocates to Castilla y León 8,924,109 euros to promote wine in third-country markets by 2025. The Sectoral Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development, chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has agreed to distribute a total of 45,841,750 euros among the autonomous communities.
The aid comes from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) to be implemented in 2025 and was launched in September 2023. With a budget for this measure of 55.59 million euros, the applications presented have finally been for a total of 45.8 million euros. For this reason, Minister Luis Planas has asked the regional councillors of the sector to raise the subsidy to 50%, the maximum allowed, for the 673 programs presented by the autonomous communities, which have shown their agreement with the ministerial proposal, of which 116 correspond to Castilla y León.
This line of promotion and communication of Spanish wines in third-country markets is included in the Wine Sector Intervention (ISV), within the framework of the National Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027.
The minister explained at the Sectoral Conference the importance of this support measure for the wine sector, because it allows to improve the knowledge of the characteristics and qualities of Spanish wines to improve their competitiveness, through the promotion of programs focused on the opening, diversification and consolidation of markets in third countries.
Advisory Council
Today, Luis Planas chaired, also by videoconference, the Consultative Council on Agricultural Policy for Community Affairs, preparatory to the Council of Ministers of Agriculture to be held next Tuesday, 23rd, in Brussels, the first under the Belgian Presidency, in which this country will detail the objectives and priorities of its mandate. The minister was pleased that Belgium has continued to follow up on dossiers that were part of the Spanish priorities.
Luis Planas highlighted that the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) has among its priorities to give continuity to some of the issues that were during the Spanish semester, during which important advances were made, such as the debate on the application of new genomic techniques in agricultural production.
In addition to the new genomic techniques, among other issues, Belgium intends to follow up on dossiers such as the one on the future regulation on animal welfare, or those on the sustainable use of plant protection products and the production and marketing of plant material.
At the Council of Ministers on the 23rd, a review will be made of the situation of the markets, which remains conditioned by the war in Ukraine and now also by the conflict in the Middle East, as well as the progress made in recent months in commercial matters. In this regard, Luis Planas, will reiterate Spain’s commitment to an “ambitious and balanced” trade policy, which strengthens the EU’s openness in a multilateral and rules-based trading system.
Follow-up on the points raised at the December meeting
The minister has also addressed the 7 points that were mentioned by the advisors of the branch at the face-to-face meeting held in Madrid on December 19 and on which the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is monitoring.
Thus, regarding agricultural insurance, it has announced the creation of a working group to evaluate the dysfunctions by the new insurance lines and to analyze the climate impact assessment studies. He also mentioned the recent approval of the Agricultural Insurance Plan for this year and which has a budget allocation of 284.5 million euros. The minister referred to the effort of this Government that has gradually increased the budget compared to the 211 million euros budgeted in 2018.
With regard to animal health, the minister has confirmed that this week there will be a meeting of directors-general to exchange views, in which a balance will be made, of the first year of affectation of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHE), “as I committed myself to you,” he said. He has reported that at the beginning of this year the plans for the different animal diseases have been published and that they are a “perfect guide for the autonomous communities”, with which the different plans have been agreed. The ministry works with laboratories to develop an EHE vaccine, which is currently not available.
The extension of the VAT reduction for basic foodstuffs to 0%, as well as for olive oil and pasta to 5%, will be in force until 30 June.
In addition, as a result of the parliamentary agreements and on the occasion of the validation of Royal Decree-Law 8/2023, the Government will reduce the VAT on olive oil to 0%, because, the minister explained, it is a product “sensitive for most Spanish families”.
Regarding the Common Agricultural Policy, the minister recalled that in the 2023 campaign many flexibilities have been applied to benefit farmers and ranchers affected by the drought, including the extension of the entry into force of the digital notebook, which will play a key role in the digitalization of the sector.
In addition, he stressed that the Food Chain Observatory will meet in February to speed up the publication of agreed value chain studies.
The potential of the wine sector was another of the demands raised in December by the autonomous communities. Luis Planas has stressed that the ministry will maintain the potential of the wine sector, with the extension of vineyard planting rights until 2045 and that, through the Sectoral Intervention of Wine (ISV), the harvest will be maintained in green if necessary.
Finally, regarding environmental issues, he explained that “we are in the phase of consolidating the CAP”, which has meant a very important change for farmers and ranchers and in a context also very complicated by the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which impacted on the agricultural sector, which is why the Government authorized extraordinary aid, also due to the drought, to support farmers and ranchers for 1.380 million euros.
He has insisted that at the moment the sector needs messages of certainty and stability and that the Government works to solve the problems of farmers and ranchers.