After almost eleven months of closure of Collserola and restrictions in 19 municipalities to eradicate African swine fever (ASF), Òscar Ordeig maintains that the episode is about to end. The minister deals with this and other crises that hit the primary sector.
When will Collserola open?
First, the message we must give is gratitude for the country's complicity in eradicating ASF in record time. No EU country has gone as fast as us. Italy and other countries have been around for years and some have even entered pig farms. We have been the fastest with 350 closures, more than 13,300 captures of wild boars, some 410 positives detected and 100 million euros invested in all operations, between one thousand and two thousand public workers there weekly... Now we have the final phase left, we are about to finish.
Last week they reported nine positives and this one...
But since August 7, all the positives, except one, are from the remains of dead animals that the dogs have found. The virus is practically no longer circulating.
Doesn't a year have to pass without positives for swine fever to be eradicated?
The density of wild boars in zone 0 is almost below one per square kilometer. In a few weeks there will no longer be animals in the area. Furthermore, of all the samples we analyze, between 300 and 500 a week, the percentage of positives is increasingly lower and they are remains.
What density was there when the crisis broke out?
We had densities of 20 wild boars per square kilometer. This was a ticking time bomb.
This summer he said that Collserola would open in the fall... what happened?
We have always said that the department does not decide when it opens. It is decided by European, Spanish, Catalan, technical and data regulations. The message we must give is one of trust. This will go well because we have done it better than anyone else. But if we rush now, we can make the disease escape us and return to where we started. We estimate that we will be able to reopen one year after the first case, at the end of November... at the end of the year.
A staggered reopening?
Yes, we are talking with the mayors who have already proposed some areas to us. It will be a gradual reopening with safe corridors. We have a lot at stake. Many millions have been lost and thousands of jobs in the meat sector hang in the balance.
Some mayors have been pushing for months to open.
This is a health crisis, not an ideological position. An institutional representative must comply with and enforce the rules. I ask for responsibility.
The residents of Vallvidrera demonstrate again and businesses in the area report losses.
We have designed aid and if we have to expand or complement it we will do so, but the rule says that we must demonstrate that they have lost 30% of their turnover. And there is a line of credit. We must finish the year and if any additional support mechanism needs to be articulated, we will study it. We will help in any way we can.
They have captured almost 14,000 wild boars, how do they carry out the hunts?
We are using the most advanced technology and knowledge in the world. We have deployed different capture and slaughter techniques in each area depending on the danger. We started by mobilizing all the resources of the State: the UME, the Civil Guard, the dogs, volunteers, the Civil Guard, the Mossos d'Esquadra, the local police... Now the rural agents use electric cars, drones, traps, geolocate, follow the animals with silencers... Outside of ground zero, where there are also restrictions but there is no circulating virus, we continue to carry out raids.
Does the meat industry quantify the losses at 1.2 billion, are they going to recover the figures from before this crisis?
We are experiencing the perfect storm at all levels. The price of pork had already started to fall before the ASF. China, the main market, has greatly increased its production. Brazil too... There is a production war and we were already coming from a decline in exports and prices. I come from China and I have shared it with the sector, the exports of the future have to be manufactured products, with added value.
How is the shock plan to reduce the rabbit population working?
For decades we have given a speech about not touching anything. Do not touch the forest, do not touch the fauna... and this has led to a lack of control of the biodiversity of ecosystems, associated diseases and damage to agriculture... This must be managed. The magnitude of the tragedy is great, we have to work and it will not be solved in two days... Regarding the rabbits, we are much better, we have made 310,000 captures.
And what percentage does it represent?
It varies greatly, depending on the area... We have also had the rabbit plague and many have died... we are calculating the impact on the census. We must continue working and we are giving tools to the farmers so that they can act... The administration cannot do it alone.
Permission to kill?
Yes, and so that you can buy a scope, put protectors on the trees, so that you can hire a company to carry out hunting control... We also subsidize this.
Should we encourage more hunters?
Man, of course! What we must do is define what the hunting model of the 21st century should be. Update ourselves, do it safely.
And is it being done?
They are working on a new hunting law for hunting control. Here everyone is necessary and no one is essential.
You talk about food sovereignty but more than half of the hunting does not enter the commercial circuit and the meat is thrown away. What measures do you promote?
We have carried out several campaigns to highlight game meat, show cooking, pedagogy... Strategies to support Catalan cuisine... The use is also closely linked to ranchers, farmers, fishermen, the PGI, the DO...
But it must also be profitable for people...
Here we must also give help. People don't know what to do with animals. We provide aid for the removal of wild boars and to create logistics centers to carry out the analysis so that from there you can sell to a company that produces and markets...
Are there logistics centers throughout the territory?
There is, but there should be more.
How many are there?
I don't know, but there should be more. And there are many and there are city councils that promote logistics centers.
We found salmon everywhere and shot the rabbits.
We must tell people what we want for the future. Value what we have, our Mediterranean diet, our fish... And also tell the sector that transformation projects can be carried out. Palamós does this with their prawns... People don't have time to cook, we have to make it easy for them.
But the primary sector must be able to live off its work...
Help the producer, help, help and help everyone and also put pressure on the consumer. Train schools, restaurateurs... the condition to help the Genesis series is that Catalan products, vineyards, shrimps...
This year some farmers have not harvested, they have paid 12 cents per kilo of grapes when INCAVI set the minimum at 52 cents...
We have 50 open files and we are investigating whether there have been practices of abuse of power.
Are they going to sanction?
If it is proven, obviously there will be a sanctioning process.
The unrest in the sector was seen this week with the tractor-trailer in Barcelona. They ask their Department for direct aid of up to 17,000 euros for their farms. Will they take it on?
The Government's maxim is to listen, defend and specify. Now we are in a very serious moment. The highest temperatures ever recorded in summer, wars by populist governments that translate into an increase in the price of diesel... a drop in the price of certain products, rice, beef, grapes, due to other circumstances. We have a lot at stake, every hectare we lose is difficult to recover. The president has given duties to Brussels to activate the contingency fund. When prices collapse, you can suspend imports from Mercosur...
Well, more products are arriving from Morocco and Egypt...
Let's see, we are saying when there is a market disturbance. When there is a drop in price, you can suspend certain imports.
And which ones has it been done with?
The beef from Brazil was purchased, the price plummeted and sanitary measures were not complied with. The situation is serious, we recognize it. In the next few days we will present details. Let's say: Which crops have an impact of more than 30% or an increase in costs of more than 30%? Should the money go into lost funds or should it be investment money? We must also see if the aid should be for everyone.
The discomfort is general, during the last 26 years there are 46% fewer farmers contributing...
I will give you the example of cows. The headline may be fewer farms in Catalonia every day or it may be that today we produce more than 26 years ago because we have more modern, professional and productive farms.
What will happen to the fishermen?
We are not going to modify the regulations. The EU has done very badly. That every December we have a proposal to reduce the working days of a sector by 80% is unpresentable. We will do whatever it takes. We already have the commitment to modify the regulations.
And why does it cost so much?
First because we have created a bureaucratic machine. We have messed things up so much in recent years that now we don't know how to undo them and secondly, for me the number one priority of Europe and Catalonia must be food. Produce food in a healthy, sustainable, safe and sufficient way. We must implement all necessary measures to avoid the destruction of agricultural space. We only have 25% of the agricultural surface when Spain and Europe have much more and, on the other hand, we have 65% of the forest surface when in Spain and Europe it is much less.
