Catarina Martins considers that Portugal “needs food sovereignty”
“ONE Agricultural production is fundamental in our country. It is, moreover, also a condition of security. Our country needs food sovereignty, not being so dependent on foreigners. As we are seeing this is dangerous”, said Catarina Martins.
The BE coordinator spoke to journalists at the Fundão market, in the Castelo Branco district, where she contacted local producers and heard this impact on their activity and on the price of products.
According to Catarina Martins, national farmers are also experiencing “an increasingly difficult situation” due to fires, drought and the price of products on international markets, such as fertilizers and energy.
However, the energy, but that must be high of everything, “who is going to pay for the food of the producers who is paying more for the food of the producers and the more that are not paying for the food of the producers people are paying more in the supermarket “.
“[Os produtores nacionais] are selling far below their cost. So here we have an impossible situation,” he noted.
Catarina Martins said that she got in touch with producers from Fundão, in the interior of the country, a region known for the production of cherries and cheese, and the producers say “they don’t know if they can” with the activity.
“Because prices go up, but they continue to receive more or less the same as they received for production. Consumers are paying more at the supermarket. Who gets the money? We have an idea, it’s a large distribution”, he justified. .
He recalled that the Jerónimo Martins group “increased profits by 40% in the last semester alone” and the Sonae group “doubled profits”.
“Only in these two large distribution companies there are more than millions of euros in profit in this period. In which consumers pay more at the supermarket, but producers do not receive for the costs that have the high prices. solution seems to us clear”, said.
“We need a tax on excessive profits, which, by the way, the Commission has been appealing to him, we can charge those who have profits to large distribution and give producers the support they need so that Portugal can continue to have agricultural production”, he insisted. .
In the opinion of Catarina Martins, “this is fundamental at the moment”, because the country already has a problem of low production, of territories with fewer people and less agriculture.
“We need farmers, we need agriculture with support and we cannot [ter] More this situation in which those who go to the supermarket shelf pay more and more, but the money goes to the producers who, yes, pay more for the tractor gas, for the fertilizer they need”, he concluded.
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