Confecarne and the General Director of agricultural and livestock resources address the demands of the sector

The Confederation of business organizations in the Cárnico Sector of Spain (Confecarne) held a meeting with Margarita Arboix, new Director General of agricultural and livestock resources of the Ministry of environment and Rural Environment and marine (MARM), to address major issues of interest to the sectorincluding the issue of exports of the beef industry Spanish. In the meeting, Jaume Blancafort (President of Confecarne and Fecic) and Generoso García (Chairman of IAEC and Vice President of Confecarne next July Revilla (member of the Board and President of Iberaice) and the Cosecretarios Miguel Huerta and Josep Collado, coincided with the General Director of the MARM that foreign trade is a strategic activity for sustaining and) development of the whole chain of livestock and industrial production of our country and they stressed that the growth of the meat sector is inescapable way to internationalization.

While Spain exported meat and prepared by over 2,500 million euros per year to markets around the world, representatives of Confecarne recalled that the situation still far from being ideal, as the Spanish export industries have to face yet to numerous health barriers in international trade. In addition, there are still markets of great importance and potential that are closed for Spanish companies, with restrictions on the sale of a portion of their products or hardly surmountable difficulties for the authorization of Spanish industries.

In this regard they called once again a strong support by the MARM to list framework of exporting companies, a fundamental tool for boosting exports, as well as the Elimination of the last administrative obstacles and documentaries, such as the health certificate of exportthey make it difficult for foreign activity of the industries and raised that, as in most of the countries of the EU, the managerial skills for the management of export should be in the hands of the MARM and not of the Ministry of health. Also, the signing of an agreement between the Ministry and the entities that are members of the Bureau of export of the meat of Spain (OEEC), which may represent a suitable means to promote the meat trade was raised to the Director-General, the opening of markets, the internationalization of Spanish meat companies and appropriate training and information of operators in the sector, as well as to promote awareness and consumption of meat and meat products beyond our borders, and ensure the highest quality of the exported products.

In this regard, representatives from the industry also pointed out the need to strengthen mechanisms of control of presence of dioxins in feed as well as the separation of greases for industrial use and food productionwith the aim of preventing the eventual appearance of food crises such as the produced recently in Germany, that, in addition to the health problems and crisis of confidence, damaging an important to the entire chain of production and the image of the meat.

Confecarne also insisted on the request that apply a super-reduced VAT for meat, as a commodity, as with other food products, so that is solvent a situation of discrimination that has dragged on for years.