The PCP parliamentary group today announced two requests for the minister’s hearing in the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, signed by parliamentary leader Paula Santos.
In the first request, the PCP seeks to have the Minister of Agriculture and Sea discuss the situation surrounding PDR 2020 support. It has been reported that the “PDR contracted support of hundreds of millions of euros that it may not be able to pay.”
This situation could leave farmers who have already invested their money “waiting months or even years to receive the contracted funds” and affect their inclusion in the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC), the PCP adds.
According to the party, this issue is confirmed “by complaints received by the PCP parliamentary group” and by positions taken by the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) and the National Confederation of Farmers (CAP) “denouncing delays in payments for the PDR 2020 investment support.”
Furthermore, the PCP parliamentary group, currently composed of three deputies, mentions that “this week, issues emerged regarding applications for CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) support, specifically the so-called direct aids.”
In a second request, the PCP asks that Minister José Manuel Fernandes be heard regarding “the difficulties and needs of the Douro Demarcated Region’s winegrowers, the potential role of the Casa do Douro, and what measures are planned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.”
The PCP highlights a demonstration held last week in Peso da Régua, in the Vila Real district, with “hundreds of Douro winegrowers reemphasizing the urgency of addressing the serious situation they are facing.”
Douro winegrowers are encountering “difficulties in selling ‘stocks’, selling grapes and wine at prices that cover production costs, the reduction of ‘benefit’, and the price drop of processed and table wines and grapes left unharvested compounded by the announcement made last April that exporting houses will cease purchasing grapes from hundreds of winegrowers as is their usual practice,” says the PCP.
The communists accuse the government of maintaining a “depreciation attempt” of the Casa do Douro, an organization they attribute with an irreplaceable role “in defending and valuing small and medium viticultural producers in the Douro Demarcated Region.”
“In May, the PCP questioned the then Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on this issue and warned about the worsening problems, as reality now demonstrates. However, the government responded with the same passivity as always regarding the problems of small and medium winegrowers, merely stating they were aware and would take no additional measures,” they criticize.
