Vox's candidate for the Congress of Deputies for Huelva, Tomás Fernández, together with number two on the list, Ana Díaz, and the Senate candidate, Carlos Bermejo, accompanied by the provincial president of Vox Huelva, María López Zambrano, have held a working meeting with the president of the Andaluza Cooperative Society Nuestra Señora de la Bella (Cobella), Francisco Javier Contreras, and the minister Bibiano Oria, with the aim of learning directly about the main needs and demands of the agricultural sector in the province.
As the party has stated in a press release, the meeting, which took place at the facilities of this cooperative based in Lepe, has allowed Vox representatives to gather the concerns of an entity that constitutes “a benchmark” for agricultural activity in Huelva and that, since its creation in 1967, has been contributing decisively to the generation of wealth and employment in the area.
During the meeting, three “major problems” were analyzed which, in the view of the party, “condition the present and the future” of agricultural cooperatives: “a lack of scale to negotiate on equal terms with the large distribution chains, the restrictions Spanish producers suffer compared to their foreign competitors, and the shortage of hydraulic infrastructure”.
In particular, the focus has been placed on the “inequality” that Spanish producers experience in phytosanitary matters, “as they are deprived of certain tools to combat pests while the entry of products from countries where the same restrictions are not applied is permitted”.
Along these lines, the president of Cobella has stressed that farmers are “the first interested parties in producing safe and quality food”, but they need “effective tools to protect their crops”. To these difficulties is added, as Tomás Fernández has warned, “the existence of regulatory differences between autonomous communities that create new difficulties for the sector”.
Another of the matters discussed was the “difficulty” in obtaining water, one of the “main concerns of farmers, because it is an essential resource to maintain productive activity and guarantee the viability of the farms”.
In this regard, Tomás Fernández has emphasized that for Vox, "water is an absolutely priority issue", because from it "not only the future of agriculture depends", but also "the tourism and industrial development of the entire province".
The top candidate for Congress has stressed that Huelva "needs" a policy that makes it possible to "guarantee supplies to farmers and, at the same time, respond to the needs of other strategic sectors for the provincial economy".
In this context, he has recalled the "importance" of water for the future of the industrial hub of Huelva and for the launch of new opportunities linked to green hydrogen, insisting that the availability of water resources is "a determining factor for attracting investment, generating jobs, and ensuring economic growth".
Fernández has defended "the need to push forward pending hydraulic infrastructure and to offer long-term solutions, in the face of the uncertainty experienced by farmers and business owners in the province".
Lastly, the Vox representatives have reiterated their commitment to "defending the national product and to demanding fair competition conditions", so that imported foods are subject to "the same health, phytosanitary, and production requirements that are required of Spanish farmers".